


One Hundred 'Boop's

by Zanrok



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Humor, Interspecies Relationship(s), Interspecies Romance, Romance, WolfEyer, wildehopps
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-14
Updated: 2017-10-05
Packaged: 2018-10-04 23:02:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 56,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10292186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zanrok/pseuds/Zanrok
Summary: Wagers are dangerous things. Just look at what happened to Nick and Judy in 'One Hundred Kisses'. Now we pick up near the end of that story with a new one, or maybe just one from a different view; Endings are only ever just another beginning after all!





	1. 'Boop'

 

You ever have one of those ideas that you know is a really REALLY bad idea… but can't seem to stop yourself from doing it anyway? Like nudging a loose pebble on a mountain side or throwing a stick at that beehive, or getting on that ship that was supposed to be just a pirate themed boat ride on your vacation to the beach? Ya… this is one of those.

If you haven't read 'One Hundred Kisses' by Cimar of Turalis WildeHopps, Well first, what is wrong with you? Second, go read that first because this story picks up from a point in the end of that story.

 **Disclaimer** : I don't own it and it's only a silly little kids movie from Disney, what could possibly be the harm in watching it?

* * *

Chapter 1 – 'Boop'

"Hey Nadine, you gonna come over to watch the game tomorrow?" Wolford asked his partner as they entered the atrium of Precinct 1 heading out at the end of their shift, ready for their weekend off.

"What and miss the chance to gloat as all of you wolves watch as your team gets decimated by The Prowlers?" Fangmeyer responded with a chuckle. "I would never miss an opportunity like that."

Wolford laughed and pointed at her, "Not this year! The Pack has a new rising star this year. With Wayne Howlney we're going to crush you cats!"

"I'll admit that little coyote is good but we've still got Lionel Manessi the 'Golden Lion'," Fangmeyer smirked at him, "It doesn't matter who you have, you're still going to lose."

Wolford was about to respond but stopped and nudged her, pointing over toward the front desk where Clawhauser was chattering away with Judy and Nick.

"Is it just me or does Nick look exceedingly smug… again." Wolford whispered to Fangmeyer.

"Oh, they're up to something again alright. I thought after the Halloween party Nick would try behaving, at least for a little while." Fangmeyer said with a groan.

Wolford gave a hearty laugh at that.

"Do those two ever do what anyone would expect?" he said leading Fangmeyer over toward the front desk, "Come on, I want to see this. Whatever it is, it's going to be entertaining!"

Clawhauser was the first to notice them and waved before Nick and Judy turned to greet them too.

"And what trouble are you two up to today?" Fangmeyer asked, crossed her arms looking at the group.

Nick gave her a shocked look, proclaiming with hurt innocents, "Trouble? Us? Why would we be up to any trouble?"

There was a snort and a chuckle from behind them as an older motherly voice spoke up. "Because you've been getting into trouble from the day you were born."

Eliana Vivian Wilde, though she insisted on Ella or Vivian, stopped pushing the double strolled toward the front desk and can came around the group of officers and to give Nick a motherly kiss on the cheek and a warning look, before saying, "I hope you aren't teaching my grandkits any bad habits now."

"Absolutely not!" Nick responded with wronged indignantly and his mother just gave him another look with a cocked eyebrow and Nick's innocent act faltered as he shuffled his foot and muttered, "And Judy wouldn't let me even if I tried."

Mrs. Wilde smiled at that and turned to the bunny giving her a kiss on the cheek as well, "Good to hear you're keeping an eye on my little boy, I still don't know how he managed to find himself such a wonderful mate, be he couldn't have possibly done better."

Judy's ears turned a light shade of pink as she mumbled something about being lucky to have found Nick and the older fox just smiled at the two.

"Well, I wish that I could spend more time with you all," she turned back to the stroller and reached in to pick up the small rabbit and fox kit, giving them both a nuzzle and kiss before turning back around to the group and handing them over to their parents, "and especially with my cute grandkits but I'll be late to my book club meeting if I don't hurry. We're discussing 'Always' tonight."

The older fox gave all four of them one last hug and kiss before heading back toward the front door, calling back with a smile right before she left, "And don't forget that you two promised to stay for dinner when you come to pick them up on Monday after work."

Judy waved back assuring her mother-in-law that they would, the small fox kit in her arms snuggling against her and sucking on the tip of his tail.

Nick smiled and nuzzled the top of his daughter's head between her small long ears, while the little bunny kit worked to detach the shiny badge on his uniform, "And what mischief did my little Ella and Ridley manage to cause at their grandmother's house today?" he said with a smile before whispering to her with a smirk, "Come on, you can tell daddy. He won't tattle to mommy."

Clawhauser leaned over to Wolford and Fangmeyer while literally holding back a squeal with his paws, and whispered through said paws as Judy berated Nick who looked unabashed, "Aren't they just _adorably you-know-what_?"

Ella finally managed to remove Nick's badge and waved it around in her tiny paws with a triumphant chirp before sticking it in her mouth to chew on.

Fangmeyer gave a shudder before saying, "That's too adorable, like criminally so." And Wolford laughed before leaning back to Clawhauser.

"So, what's the scoop?" he said conspiratorially while smirking and pointing at the two small officers.

Clawhauser tore his wide eyes away from them long enough to grin at Wolford and say, "Rumor mill says that Judy got fed up with Nick calling the Chief 'Buffalo Butt' today. Apparently, Nick asked why, claiming the name was a perfect fit for him and Judy told him to either shut up about it or prove it. It ended up in a wager, Nick would get a hundred kisses if he proved the name fit by the end of today or he'd have to stop using the name for a month _and_ stop sneakily eating all the blueberries out of their fridge."

Fangmeyer looked at the portly cheetah impressed, "And how did you find all that out?"

Clawhauser giggled, "Radio in their cruiser is still a bit broken from when Bogo hit it, the transmit button sticks."

Wolford laughed and even Fangmeyer couldn't help chuckling at that, "Guess Nick lost though, how was he even going to 'prove' that the Chief should be called 'Buffalo Butt'?" she said.

"Beats me," Clawhauser said before stifling a squealing 'AWWWwww' as Judy went over to help Nick retrieve his badge only for the Ella to hand it to Ridley who took it and from his sister and started sucking on it instead of his tail.

The precinct's loud speakers crackled as something like the sound of a door closing came over the line. There was some grumbling that got louder and finally became decipherable.

"…day finally over, now I can have some time for my important appointment."

There were a few taps and then a bad mechanical impersonation of Gazelle's voice was heard, "Think you can dance… 'Chief. Bogo.' ?"

"Yes. Yes. I _do_." The chief said in a gleeful voice without his usual gruffness as his seat creaking taking his weight… and an ear-splitting fart roared over the loud speakers.

The precinct, which had gone utterly silent, remained that way for a few seconds as the fart slowly petered out, but then someone over in the office area snickered and the entire precinct erupted in table pounding laughter.

Judy turned to a very smug Nick with a disbelieving look on her face, " _Nick_ , you _didn't_ …"

He smirked back at her with an innocent look that screamed 'Guilty!' and said while pointing over his shoulder with a thumb toward the chief's office, "Did what? _I_ didn't fart. That was Chief 'Buffalo Butt', but I guess you owe me a hundred kisses now."

The precinct quieted as Chief Bogo's voice came over the speakers in a growing growl, "A whoopee cushion?! Somebody put a _whoopee cushion_ on my chair?! Who…" he stopped and the sound of the Chief facepalming could clearly be heard over the speakers. There were a few quiet seconds and then the sound of his door opening and crashing shut boomed both over the speakers and through the atrium.

The group around the front desk which, now also included two chirping and giggling kits, looked up in time to see Bogo appear at the second floor railing, whoopee cushion in one hoof as he bellowed, "WILDE! HOPPS! MY OFFICE, _NOW_!"

Nick looked up trying to keep his smirk off of his face, "Chief it's Wilde and Wilde now, you were at the wedding remember?"

The Chief pointed the hoof crushing the whoopee cushion at Nick dangerously and bellowing, "Don't CARE, MY OFFICE **_NOW_."**

There was a small squealing laugh and Ella waved her small paws at the enraged buffalo like sighting her favorite teddy bear. The chief's eye twitched.

He pointed at Nadine and Ralph standing across from them and still bellowing, though not as menacingly, said, "FANGMEYER! WOLFORD! Watch those two… two _kits_ while I have a _nice_ chat with their parents," He glared back the uniformed fox and bunny adding some extra sub-arctic frost to his voice, "Right, **_NOW._** "

Bogo turned and stomped back toward his office slamming the door again. There was another few moments of angry muttering over the speakers, "-better not grow up to be like their parents or this city is doomed, now where is that damned mic?" before there was a click and the speakers turned off.

Judy turned to Nick with her own glare, "If we get put on parking duty for this I'll… I'll…" She said angrily, her temper rising and Fangmeyer and Wolford both took a step back from the bunny. Nick though, smirked at her while she tried to figure out what she was going to do to him and kissed her opened mouth in a way that set her ears which had been bolt upright in fury, vibrating like a rung bell.

Nick pulled back satisfied and said to the shocked bunny, "You'll have time to give me those other 99 kisses?" He turned and walked over to Ralph handing the surprised wolf the bunny kit.

"Watch my little rascal for a second Wolford? Thanks bud." He turned back to Judy, "Come on Carrots we have to go mollify Chief Buffalo Butt now."

Judy sighed and before Fangmeyer had realized what had happened she was holding the little fox kit still sucking away on Nick's badge while Judy thanked her and ran after Nick.

Fangmeyer looked down in terror at the small fox kit sucking away happily in her paws, not knowing what to do.

She looked back up but Judy had already disappeared.

Desperate, Fangmeyer looked over at Wolford who was trying to keep the small bunny from takin his badge off his uniform as well.

"Oh, no you don't Ella! I don't want to have to spend hours re-polishing _my_ badge." He said, one paw holding his badge on his shirt while he tried repeatedly to gently move the small kit that was holding onto it like a limpet away from the shiny object.

Clawhauser was giggling and had pulled out his phone to video record Wolford fight with the determined baby bunny.

" _Ralph_!" Fangmeyer hissed at her partner trying not to drop or otherwise break the kit in her paws. Ralph looked up at her and she gesturing down with her muzzle at the fox kit saying desperately, " _What do I do with him?_ "

Ralph shrugged, "Hold him? Hey!" he reached back trying to reclaim his badge from the bunny kit, his ears folding back as he struggled with the infant, "and don't let Ridley get his paws on your badge!"

Fangmeyer looked back down at the kit who was lazily looking back up at her still terrified face. There was faint bellowing coming from Bogo's office but Fangmeyer ignored it trying to think about how to deal with infant she was holding.

"H-Hey there little guy…" She tried saying, while smiling down at the kit. Ridley who had been sucking away happily on the corner of the badge watching her with wide little eyes, stopped.

His expression started to waver and Fangmeyer felt her smile and whiskers drop, fearing what she realized was about to happen.

"Now, now there's no need to-"

Ridley's wavering expression broke and he started to wail.

"Hey, hey, come on. Please don't do that…"

Nadine tried lightly bouncing the kit, then awkwardly rocking him but nothing seemed to work and the kit just wailed louder.

Nadine looked back over at Ralph in desperation, "Ralph! _Help_!"

The wolf had gotten his badge back but had his head tilted at an odd angle as Ella tugged on his lip, apparently trying to inspect his interesting fangs.

"Liitle bbusy," he slurred, glancing at Fangmeyer, "Try oing ssomething funny, ow!"

Fangmeyer looked down at Ridley still wailing in her paw as he watched her.

"funny… funny… right." She closed her eyes and scrunched her face before popping the open going, "Peak-a-boo!"

The little fox kit stopped, staring at her wide eyed for a second before bursting out in a wail twice as loud as before, little tears now rolling down his cheeks. A second wail picked up sympathetically from the kit's sister in Ralph's paw.

"Nadine! _funny,_ not _scary_!" Ralph said turned to her, looking a little desperate now himself as all his attempts to comfort Ella failed and the wailing got louder.

"I'm _trying_ ," Fangmeyer said in a piteous mew, out of ideas as she tried rocking the kit again against her chest.

"Here let's switch," Wolford said passing the wailing bunny kit to her and taking the little balling fox.

Fangmeyer tried smiling again, this time without teeth, as she leaned down to try cooing at the bunny ineffectually. She even tried purring in a last-ditch effort to cheer the kit up.

The bunny none the less, continued to wail, now starting to cry as well before one of her small paws booped Fangmeyer on her nose making her eyes cross and her nose scrunched and twitch in an automatic response.

Ella's wailing decreased momentary then picked back up.

"Whatever you just did, do it again!" Wolford said desperately having no luck calming the fox kit.

Nadine tried making that face again but couldn't manage it and Ella continued to cry and wail.

"It's not working," Nadine whined her ears flattened against her head in distress as she tried to maintain a purr hoping it would calm the kit.

"What did you do? I'm not having any luck over here." Wolford said while trying to dangle his badge in front of Ridely to catch his attention.

"She booped my nose by accident, but I tried making that face again and it didn't work, she just keeps-"

Fangmeyer's eyes crossed again as a gray wolf paw booped her nose.

"Hey! Ralph!" Fangmeyer shot Wolford a glare, and he booped her again with his finger. Nadine swatted his paw away trying to uncross her eyes and stop her nose from twitching but he just reached back and did it again.

"Who likes to see the tiger go 'Boop'," Wolford said in a baby voice and did it _again_.

"Boop! See everything's alright, watch the silly tiger! Boop!"

Wolford's finger tapped her nose again.

"Ralph! STOP THAT!" Nadine said rubbing her nose with her free paw her purr faltering.

"Nadine, it's working." Wolford said rocking Ridley who had stopped crying to watch, "Who wants to see the big kitty go Boop, do you want to see the kitty go Boop." Ralph cooed and booped Nadine lightly on the nose again.

She let out a low frustrated grow amid her purr and reached over and booped Wolford on his nose.

The wolf blinked and his ears snapped up a winning pull on a slot machine. There was a small giggle from the fox kit. Wolford gave Nadine a glare and she smirked and booped him again, gaining another giggle this time from both kits.

"Who likes to see the _wuffy_ go Boop!" Nadine cooed through her now steady purr and did it again this time trying not to chuckle along with the kit's chirps and giggles at the startled wolf's reaction.

Wolford frowned and she leaned forward and booped his nose with the tip of her finger, "Boop!" there was more giggles, "Boop!"

"Nadine!" Wolford said ears still up like two small flags as he tried to protect his nose with his free paw and she booped him again now grinning.

"Boop!"

Both kits were giggling happily now, even though Wolford was frowning.

His frown though suddenly became a smirk and his tail swished around and up, it's tip booping Nadine on the nose as she leaned forward to try booping him again.

"Boop!" Ralph said smirking and both kits laughed as Naidne's eyes crossed and she let out a small sneeze while pulling her head back, but not quick enough because Ralph reached out and tapped her nose with his finger causing her to sneeze again.

"Boop!" Wolford said snickering.

She glared and reached over to boop the wolf's unprotected nose, " _Boop_!", and both kits laughed, Ella even clapping her little paws.

"Are you two done clowning around?" Bogo's voice said gruffly and both Wolford and Fangmeyer stopped their little battle to try and boop each other, to look over at the Chief who had his head down, hoof pinching his nose like he was striving to prevent a headache.

Both of the officers looked at each other and then back at Bogo, Fangmeyer blushing slightly as Wolford grinned sheepishly.

"That is _sooooo_ going on FurBook!" Clawhauser squealed in a giggle and started tapping away on his phone with enthusiasm and Fangmeyer groaned trying to protest.

"Benji, please, _please_ don't post th-"

"Done!" the cheetah said delighted to Fangmeyer's dismay.

She could feel her whiskers and shoulders dropping knowing it was futile to try and stop the over enthusiastic gossip known as Clawhauser.

Nick, looking only slightly chastised, came over with Judy and collected their two kits while Bogo looked over to the cheetah his expression changing to a grimly satisfied smile that every officer knew to fear.

"Officer Clawhauser," he began getting the cheetah's attention, "If you're done messing around, could you send out a message to Monday's shift that there will be a training session after the morning briefing. Officer Wilde has generously volunteered to let officer Hopps use him to giving a training demonstration on take down techniques, in particular some of the more _advanced_ techniques."

Nick's ears dropped all the way at that and Bogo turned and walked away, with what might have just been the faintest hint of a grin.

"Still worth it." Nick mumbled, sneaking a glance at Judy as they settled the two kits back in the stroller.

Fangmeyer was about to speak when Wolford reached up and booped her nose again.

"Boop!"

She gave a short startled jump, eyes crossing again. She landed on her hindpaws, her tail snapping and the two kits squealed in laughter at her expression as she swatted at Wolford's paw but was to slow to get him. There where even some snickers and giggles from the rest of the group.

Nadine's eyes narrowed on her partner dangerously.

" _Ralphhhh_ , if you do that _one_ more time…"

He smirked again apparently thinking that he'd found a new fun little game, and said back, "You'll what? _Boop_ my nose?"

Nick still snickering, called over to the wolf, "Ralph, I'll bet you tickets to the championship game that you can't boop her nose a hundred times before she boops you!"

Nadine's head snapped over and she growled at the grinning fox, "Don't you even-"

"Deal!"

_Boop_

Nadine's eyes crossed looking at the gray furred, claw tipped finger on her nose as it twitched.

Nadine let out a Roar to squeals of delight from the two kits in the stroller.

" _RALPH_!"

The wolf turned grinning like a fool and ran, calling back, "ONE!" and letting out a howling peel of laughter as the tigress roared loud enough to shake the doors and chased after him.

**Boop Count**

**Ralph: 1**

* * *

A/N

Yep, One Hundred Kisses staring WildHopps might be over, but an ending is only ever another Beginning. And this is a beginning for Wolfeyer.

In the spirit of the story that started this quasi sequel, it will be run the same way. If you have an idea for a 'boop' or a chapter or what ever, send it my way (Easiest to pm me on FanFiction). If it fits the story rating (T) and the story characterization and setting, I'll try my best to fit it in. This story has only a vagueish plot; this is the start and as long as we're going in the right direction the exact route is flexible. Sailing pirate ships is like that, just avoid the sandbars and sea monsters and pick up some supplies and coffee in Tortuga when you pass.

...

This whole story started because a comment about **OceRydia** 's awesome **Zootopia 'Ship' Flags picture** (Every self respecting pirate 'ship' needs a flag) and One Hundred Kisses which sparked something off in my mind.

Cimar, I hold you responsible for getting me into this story! (first, 100 Kisses was simply too good) and second as one of the pirate admirals you could have stopped this! Why didn't you stop this?!

MinscLovesBoo, You too are also to blame. You spawned the Wolfeyer fleet. You nudged that little loose pebble on the mountain with that first 'Boop'

Fox in the Hen House, Stop Laughing and Egging me on! A grinch like me can only do so much even with coffee and these pirates are demanding!

Starfang's Secrets, HELP! SOS! The Pirates took me and want me to write more!

Really that last one goes for everybody, We've got 100 chapters to get through people, mammals, pirates... whatevers. Let's get those ideas rolling, we have some booping to do.


	2. Chapter 2 - Boxed In

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I was working on a different story and ran into a difficult scene I was having trouble with and while I was drinking coffee and thinking about how to resolve that whole mess this chapter sort of wrote itself... that or little gremlins in my computer wrote it. One way or another here it is, enjoy.
> 
> Disclaimer: Disney owns Zootopia. Cimar of Turalis Wildehopps owns '100 Kisses'. MinscLovesBoo owns the original 'Boop' that spawned Wolfeyer. (What shall hence forth be known as *drum roll*... The Genesis Boop) Me, well... Since all the good ideas are already taken I'll just steal them. I can't get sued for that can I?

 

"You really don't think that was a bad idea making that bet?" Judy said pushing the stroller toward their car in the side parking lot.

Nick laughed and turned to face their kits in the stroller, "Lets see here, who wants to see the _kitty_ and _wuffy_ go 'boop'!"

There was chirping and giggling and other enthusiastic noises from the two kits, and Nick looked back at Judy with a smug smile, "They seem to agree with me that that was a great idea. Three to one Carrots, you lose!"

"I still can't believe you did that," she mumbled shaking her head though she was smiling as she opened the car door for him.

Nick gave another laugh, "It's only a silly little bet Carrots. Anyway, what's the worst that could happen?" he said as he strapped Ridley into the first car seat. He turned around expecting Judy to pass Ella to him so he could strap her in as well but instead was met with a surprise kiss that made his tail and ears stand on end.

Judy pulled back, a grin on her face, "Oh I don't know, I remember a whole lot of trouble some silly little bet got us into a little while back, I'm still not entirely sure how you convinced Bogo not to fire us after the elevator incident."

Nick was about to speak but Judy caught him with another quick kiss before passing Ella over to a slightly stunned fox.

"Here buckle up our little girl too," Judy said turning to fold the stroller down to fit in the trunk though Nick saw a smirk flash across her face as she called back, "Oh, and 97 left."

Nick just stared for a moment before looking down at his daughter with what was probably a ridiculously silly smile judging by her delighted reaction, "And that my little hustler-in-training is why bets are amazing." He turned to strap her into the car seat next to Ridley and checked to make sure Judy was around at the back of the car, before whispering to her, "especially when you rig them so that you always win."

"I heard that!" Judy said her ears snapping up, just visible above the trunk, "And you don't know that you're going to win that bet with Wolford."

Nick scoffed, "This is _Nadine Fangmeyer_ we're talking about here Fluff, I like Ralph but he doesn't stand a chance against her; she can even give _you_ are real run for your money in the practice ring." He finished strapping Ella in and gestured dramatically, "Why you saw her chasing Ralph, she'll eat him alive, why I've heard that she eats nails for breakfast and s–"

"And if you say what I think your about to say in front of the kits I'll tell my mom to stop sending us blueberries." Judy said warningly heading for the driver seat, "And that exaggeration is just preposterous, nobody eats nails, how did a saying like that even get started.?"

Nick smirked going around to the passenger seat, "Because it probably has a grain of truth to it; why I even know a tough little bunny that makes sure to only buy cereal with extra iron in it." he teased before yelping as Judy's paw connected with his shoulder.

She sniffed, her nose upturned, "It's important to start off your day with a health meal and there are other necessary vitamins and minerals in those cereals other than iron!"

Nick grabbed the small gray paw before it could retreat and kissed it like they were at a formal ball, causing the cheeks of his bunny's upturned face to darken slightly.

"Oh don't get me wrong Carrots, I love my wonder bunny just how she is, bland morning cereal and all." He grinned as a blush started traveling up her ears, "But you have to admit, that bets a sure win for me."

"I think you might be surprised Nick. Ralph might goof off a lot, but he's no slouch." Judy said.

Nick raised an eyebrow smirking, "Care to bet on it then? Standard wager?"

Judy leaned across the seat and kissed him to seal the deal. "You're on Slick. Oh, and 96."

Nick smirked back and kissed her nose, "You are soooo going to lose, Fluff. Don't you remember what Duke was saying the last time he got dragged in? The criminals of the city have even given Nadine a nickname, she's _the_ Tigress, Terror of the TUSK Team."

Judy giggled and pushing Nick back into his seat. "Buckle up Nick and as for that bet; I'm going to win because Nadine is never going to see him coming. Ralph is one of the best at undercover operations, he doesn't have a nickname because the bad guys only ever see Nadine charging at them while they think Ralph's backing them up not taking them down from behind."

Judy reached for the car keys but stopped a smile crossing her face and reached for her phone first.

Nick finished buckling up and looked over at her, smirk still in place, "And what is my sly little bunny up to now?"

"Oh nothing." Judy said as the line connected and a slightly out of breath voice came through, "Judy, hey what's up?" there was a snarl followed by a snicker heard through the speaker.

"Not much, just wanted to check on how confident you think you are about this bet since Nick and I have a small side wager, he seems to think that Nadine is going to, what where his words, 'Eat you alive',"

A somewhat muffled voice said in a pleased snarl, "Hear that, not even your fellow canids think you stand a chance, give up Ralph!"

There was a raspberry sound followed by another snarl before Ralph replied, "I take it your betting on me then Judy?"

"Absolutely" she said, and Ralph laughed saying 'Hear that!' while Nadine could be heard in a betrayed voice asking, "Hey, what happen to girls sticking together?!"

There was some more laughing and a growl.

"Don't worry Judy I got this in the bag already, why it's already two to zero!" Ralph said with delighted relish and there was another snarl and the sound of someone stomping away. "Ready to just give up? You could just let me boop your nose another 98 times and this will all be over!" Judy could hear Ralph shouting at Nadine over the phone and turned to Nick with a smug smile.

"Still so confident in your choice there Slick," she said and giggled at his sour expression.

Ralph's laughs and taunts suddenly stopped followed by a very worried 'Oh-oh'.

"Sorry Judy but I've got to go!" Ralph said in a rush as there was the sound of a car engine starting followed by a loud 'Clank' and the call cut off.

This time Nick snickered and leaned over close to her ear. She didn't even need to look at him to tell he was smirking.

"Still confident in _your_ choice their Carrots?" he said in a mocking whisper.

"Oh hush you!" She said feeling her ears heating up and silenced his retort with a kiss. Judy pulled away grinning at the silly but beautiful smile that always appeared on his muzzle when she kissed him. She leaned forward touching her nose to his smirking, "I'd have thought that by now you'd have learned not to bet against me Slick."

Nick smirked back, "I don't know, I recall winning our latest little wager. What are you at right now, 95?"

Judy kissed him again before pulling back and patting his cheek, "Oh you silly silly fox, you only think you won while I got exactly what I wanted; You've been slaking off on your training and your takedown techniques need practice. Oh, and as a bonus I get to kiss you 94 more times now."

Judy started the engine and couldn't hold back a giggle at the perplexed look on Nicks face that was rapidly turning to horror.

"No… _no_ … please don't say it!" Nick nearly whined but Judy just smiled more.

"It's a hustle Sweetheart!"

There was a sudden bout of bubbly giggling laughter from Ridley and Ella and Nick just groaned.

"Three to one Nick, I win. Now lets get home, there's dinner to make and a lot more smooching to do."

* * *

(Shortly Before)

Francine was coming down the hallway from the garage where the cruisers where parked only to hear a string of howling laughter followed by what she first took for a bellowing roar.

"RRRRRRRRAAAAALLLLPPPPHHHH!"

Wolford suddenly appeared around the corner of the hallway sprinting for all he was worth in her direction, still laughing manically and Fangmeyer appeared a second later actually bouncing off the wall on all four paws as she chassed the wolf.

Francine's eyes went wide as she realized the two were about to plow into her since her elephantine bulk took up most of the hallway.

But Ralph, still laughing, threw himself down like a baseball player and skidded between her legs. Francine looked down to see him pop back to his feet and continue his sprint laughing even harder now, right a set of paws land on her shoulder and with another roar that set her large ears ringing she was nearly flung forward as the paws pushed off her shoulder and back.

By the time she caught her balance and turned around the two had already disappeared from view the howling laughter and outraged roars fading into the distance.

"What by Dumbo was that about?!" Francine muttered in confusion putting a hand up to rub her ear and deciding she might need to visit the precincts donut loving source of office gossip before starting on her shift for the night.

* * *

Wolford was running out of breath as he ran into the garage (laughing while sprinting will do that). He fumbled with his pocket pulling out the key fob to their cruiser glad he had it and not Nadine as another roar sounded hot on his heels.

He couldn't stop the laugh that came out even as he gasped for air, putting on one last burst of speed and hitting the unlock button.

_Teasing a tiger might not be smart… but that look on her face was priceless!_

Ralph came to a skidding stop throwing the driver side door open jumping inside. He looked back to see a not very happy looking tigress descending on him in elegantly terrifying pounce. He managed to close and lock the door not a fraction of a second too soon as she impacted on the door, rocking the vehicle.

Ralph got back up from where he'd flopped back in the seat when she hit the cruiser and alternately panting and laughing looked out the window to see Nadine standing there scowling at him in frustration. He swore he could almost see steam coming out of her ears.

"Ralph if you come out now and grovel I might _might_ just let this go." Nadine said in a dangerous voice.

Ralph snickered still panting, "Sure but only if you let me boop your nose another 99 times, I've got tickets to watch The Pack take the championship this year to win!"

"Not Even in Your Dreams! The Prowlers are winning this year!" Nadine snarled.

"Sureee they are," Ralph said sarcastically, before snickering again, "So is that a yes then, a little groveling and you'll concede and let me win my bet? 99 boops won't take that long."

"You try booping my nose again and I'll boop you so many times you'll lose your sense of smell and your ears will fall off from springing up!"

"As long as I get to boop you first!" Ralph snickered to another snarl and Nadine tried opening up the locked cruiser's door to predictable results.

She gave up after a minute and looked up glaring at him.

"Just give up Nadine," he taunted and waved the key fob in front of her just for added effect, "I'm _going_ to win. Just like The Pack is going to beat The Prowlers tomorrow _and_ win the championship! I _am_ going to get to go watch on Nicks dime!"

"Nadine crossed her arms seeming to smolder.

"You really think that, don't you?" she finally said.

Ralph snickered putting his nose up to the glass, "You don't? Lionel Manessi is old news, We've got the new and we're winning this year."

Nadine leaned forward until only the glass separated her pink nose from his dark one and gave him a smile that would have made any criminal in the city run in fear, "Wayne Howlney is a pup, _Manessi_ has the experience to take us all the way this year. We are going to win, and you're going to lose, just like you're going to lose that bet!"

"Really?" Ralph said, smiled back in the same way, "Then why don't you put you're money where your mouth is? _When_ , I win this bet your going to have to come with me to the championship game wearing _The_ _Pack's_ apparel and help me cheer them onto victory."

Nadine's smile grew to the point that any criminal would probably be hiding under their beds shaking. "And _when_ I win you're going to be on _my_ side wearing a Prowler jersey and rooting for my team as we take the championship!"

"You're on!" Ralph said grinning, "You just took a suckers bet, your already losing!"

Nadine backed up and pointed at him, her finger pressed up against the glass where her nose had been a moment before directly opposite from his.

"Not for long, Your nose is MINE!" she said before jumping up and onto the roof of the cruiser.

Ralph looked up in confusion as there was scrambling sounds making their way across the roof, and saw Nadine jump down on the other side of the cruiser… where the window was halfway down.

Nadine turned smiling in a manner that made the tigress look like she was very hungry and had just spotted dinner through the open window.

Ralph saw her muscles coiling for a leap and managed a 'Oh Shit!', his mind scrambling to think of something and with no other ideas slammed his paw down on the window controls as Nadine pounced at him.

She made it partway through the opening before the rising window pinned her larger frame with a squawk, her one paw she'd managed to get through the window waving a mere inch in front of Ralph's muzzle as he pressed himself back against the door.

"Thank Balto this cruiser has an elephant durability rating," Ralph muttered as he tried catching his breath, his eyes a little wide, as Nadine squirmed and flexed her not inconsiderable muscle trying to free herself and get to him.

"Damnit!" Nadine roared unable to.

She stretched almost touching him as he pressed a little further back into the door.

 _If she'd gotten in the cruiser…_ he thought only now realizing how close he'd just come to losing this bet. He was a skilled fighter but so was Nadine and in a close, boxed in area like this her and her superior weight and strength would have given her all the advantage she would have needed.

_She would have sat on me and kept booping me till she won… I might have to add some rules to this…_

"Put this window down so I can pin you and your furry tail to the seat and boop you silly!" Nadine roared still struggling.

 _Boop!_ the word ran through Ralph's half panicked mind.

"Nadine! I didn't think you where the kind of girl to do that! And in one of the police cruiser no less?!" he said with a slightly hysterical chuckle, and then his mind caught up with what had come out of his mouth.

 _Kiss your ass goodbye Ralph,_ part of his mind said, _Nadine's gonna-_

What Nadine actually did was laugh.

"You!? Here!? _Seriously_!?" She laughed again and Ralph wasn't sure if he felt relieved or slightly hurt, "Oh you're cute enough Ralph," she snickered, "But you need to work on your pickup lines, your worse than Delgato!"

Now Ralph wasn't sure if he felt miffed or…

_Did she just say I was cute? Cute!? Really!? Not handsome but CUTE?!_

_Okay, I think I finally understand why bunnies hate that term…_

Ralph looked back up at Nadine now covering her mouth with her paw as she snickered and giggled still stuck in the window and a smile crept onto his face.

Ralph moved forward quickly and grabbed Nadine's arm that was in the cruiser. The action caught the amused tiger off guard and he was able to pin the limb by sheer force despite the bad angle and her strength, though it did take both of his paws. Nadine looked up at him in shock as she tried to free both herself and her now trapped arm.

Ralph just grinned.

_First, some rules so she doesn't thrash me in this bet then a little payback… cute was it? I'll show her cute!_

"Well be that as it may, we still have a wager to settle," Ralph said, "And with you trapped like this I could sit here and boop your nose till I won," Nadine's eyes widened a bit and she squirmed and flexed her arm almost breaking free of his grasp.

_Damn she's strong! Better hurry before she gets free…_

"But that wouldn't be fun or fair now would it? I wouldn't want you to think I unjustly won. I think we can both agree each boop has to won fairly, no…" he snicker, "pinning someone and booping away. Agreed?"

"Fine!" Nadine said still struggling and Ralph knew that he wouldn't be able to hold her arm only by brute force much longer.

He looked back at Nadine his grin growing, "Oh, and I've always thought you are damned _cute_ yourself," Nadine stopped struggling and gapped at him for a moment and he snickered before leaning forward to place a quick kiss on her nose which gave a single twitch in response.

" _Especially_ when you look like that." Ralph said pleased with her stunned reaction. Almost nothing phased Nadine but that sure had, and he couldn't help think that she actually did look quite pretty as she stared back at him, open jawed, in surprise.

"Two – Zero" Ralph said and then noticed that the white striped portions of her face had turned almost… pink.

_Is… Is Nadine blushing!?_

In one powerful move Nadine broke his hold and had backed out of the cruiser only to stare back at him.

_No way, I think she_ _**is** _ _blushing! I didn't even think she_ _**could** _ _blush!_

Ralph was so caught up in the fact that his partner, the indomitable Nadine Fangmeyer, had actually _blushed_ that he almost missed the warning signs as her eyes narrowed on him.

His paw slammed down on the window control as he ducked her paw that came through the gap as she tried to boop his nose… or just grab him and try to haul him bodily out of the window. There were a few frantic seconds of Ralph desperately trying to avoid her paw as the window closed before she finally had to withdraw her arm or risk it getting trapped.

"You… YOU…!" She stared glaring back at him through the window, before snarling, " _When_ I win I'm not just going to make you wear _any_ Prowler apparel, I'm going to make you wear a Lionel Manessi jersey and the you're going to go and ask him to _sign it_ specifically to you!" She tapped on the window with an extended claw threateningly, " _And_ you'll tell Manessi how he's so much better than _Wayne Howlney_! You're going to have to do _whatever_ I say that day! You'll be begging me for mercy! Just you wait…!"

Ralph looked back at the fuming tigress and couldn't resist the urge to tease his partner a little more. There was a little voice in the back of his mind that was telling him this was a stupid, that it was an awful, idiotic idea. But Wolford simply couldn't resist this opportunity.

He put both his elbows on the window edge and used his paws to prop up his head as he grinned broadly, his nose separated from her pointing claw by only the glass. He could even feel his tail wagging in the excited fun of the moment and didn't even bother trying to stop it. Ralph looked at Nadine and right before she opened her mouth to continue, he spoke up first.

"You're pretty when you blush." He said and added a little appreciative sigh.

Her mouth snapped shut, her eyes grew a bit wider and her blush deepened. Ralph's grin widened and his tail swished a bit faster, and then she let out a snarling bellowing roar and he snickered.

Ralph raised his paw and made playful swiping motion with a comical " _Rawr!_ " sound and then fell back in the seat laughing at the look of dumbfounded, open mouthed surprise on Nadine's now heavily blushing face.

He was laughing so hard he almost missed both Nadine's irritated snarl and his phone going off. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out his phone and saw it was Judy calling him. Getting a grip on his laughter he put the call on speaker.

"Judy hey what's up?" he said, still snickering from his laughing fit.

"Not much," Judy's overly energetic voice came through the phone, "just wanted to check on how confident you think you are about this bet since Nick and I have a small side wager, he seems to think that Nadine is going to, what where his words, 'Eat you alive',".

Nadine had stopped snarling to listen to his call and smirked at him, "Hear that, not even you're fellow canids think you stand a chance, give up Ralph!"

Ralph feeling overly giddy stuck out his tongue at her in a absurdly childish stunt which got a back a rather impressive snarl, "I take it your betting on me then Judy?"

"Absolutely" she said, and Ralphed laughed.

"Hear that!" he called over to Nadine while she looked at the phone in dismay and said, "Hey, what happen to girls sticking together?!"

Ralph laughed again before getting control of himself, he looked out the window smirking broadly at Nadine and only spoke once he had caught her eye, "Don't worry Judy I got this in the bag already, why it's already two to zero!"

Nadine pointed at him, about to say something then just growled, turned and stormed off.

"Ready to just give up?" Ralph shouted at her retreating form triumphantly, "You could just let me boop your nose another 98 times and this will all be over!"

Nadine's tail gave a dismissive flick as she stopped by the wall of the garage by one of the racks of supplies and grabbed something. She turned around and gave Ralph a look like he was her meal and she was about to play with her food.

Ralph realized what she was holding as she started walking back.

"Oh-oh." Ralph muttered and then scrambled over the center console and back into the drive seat.

"Sorry Judy but I've got to go!" Ralph said hurriedly as hit the start button and threw the car into forward. He ended the call and hit the gas pedal but was a second to late this time.

As his foot came down he'd cringed at the loud 'Clank!' sound that had come from the rear of the vehicle where Nadine had been headed. The cruiser jolted forward a few inches and then came to a grinding halt and he eased up on the gas.

Ralph unlocked the door and stuck his head out only to confirm that, yes, Nadine while looking quite smug, had booted their cruiser. The big yellow metal cap and bar on the wheel had rotated up and jammed against the under carriage and there wasn't a chance in hell of him driving away until he managed to get it off… which would involve getting out of the safety of the car and dealing with the tigress that was looking at him like he'd just turned into an interesting play toy.

"Oh S-" Ralph started to say before yanking closed and relocking the car door. He looked up to see Nadine now on the other side a large smile across her face.

"You've trapped yourself, Ralph," she said with a chuckle, "You gonna give up peacefully or do I have to wait you out?"

"You'll never take me!" Ralph responded and realizing how melodramatic that sounded grinned and decided to go all the way, "You and your dastardly scheme will never succeed!"

"Oh, I don't know about that, felines are patient hunters, I'm willing to stay here as long as it takes to catch you. You can give up now and take your nose boop or you can wait and take it latter, your choice."

Ralph crossed his arms and glared at her, "I think I'll take option three," he said and scrambled back across the seat to the other door.

There was a thump from the roof and Ralph stopped before opening the door as the sound followed him across and stopped right above the door. He moved back over the drive door but the sounds of shifting weight on top of the car followed him and there was a snicker.

Ralph flopped back into the seat trying to think how to get himself out of the box he'd trapped himself in and his eyes landed on the switchboard for the cruiser.

_Might as well, it might work after all._

He smirked and flipped the switch for the lights and siren.

There was a startled and very loud yowl from above him but before his grin could even form there was also a snapping sound and the sound and lights abruptly stopped.

"Oh I'm sooo going to get you for that Ralph!" Nadine said, "I don't care if it takes all night and it only counts for one! I'm going to boop your nose till that silly expression of yours is stuck on your face!"

"Well, I think we're at a stale mate then," Ralph said and flopped back in the seat. He would _not_ lose, He'd beat her, he didn't care how long it took.

…

A half an hour latter Ralph was still sitting in the cruiser and hadn't figure anyway out of his situation. He was currently watching the tip of Nadine's tail through the rear window as it hung over the back of the cruiser and slowly, patiently, flicked from one side to the other with metronomic timing.

Flick… Flick… Flick…

It was like watching the pendulum arm of a grandfather clock.

"Nadine," Ralph called out in something close to a whine, "I'm _booorred_."

Flick… Flick… Flick…

Her tail had kept him distracted for a while but by now he'd memorized the intricate and unique stripes and he wanted to reach out through the glass to grab it and examine it. His tail couldn't move like that and with nothing else to do but wait, the Flick… Flick… Flick… of her tail had started to mesmerize him. He wanted to examine it, compare it to his… and maybe play with it a bit…

Flick… Flick… Flick…

…He was bore after all.

"You ready to give up?" Nadine called down, her voice smug.

"Never!" he responded quickly, determinedly.

Flick… Flick… Flick…

Flick… Flick… Flick…

"I'm still _bored_." Ralph whined.

Flick… Flick… Flick…

*Ping*

Ralph looked at his phone which had chimed and saw a notification.

'SteelTigress has challenged you to a round of Battleship! Accept / Decline'

Ralph grinned and hit the button to accept the invitation to the phone game. Despite what she might say he knew she was bored too. At least he'd had her tail to watch. It was prettier than any wolf's tail he ever seen.

Flick… Flick… Flick…

* * *

Bogo made his way down toward the Garage on his way out of the building after his 'very important personal appointment' feeling much better. His little 'dance' lessons always did leave him feeling happy, almost optimistic, though he'd never admit that. Now if only the Wildes and their two cute ticking time bombs of trouble could not make a mess for a little while everything would be perfect and he-

Bogo stopped as he entered the garage his head doing a double take as it locked back onto the ZPD uniformed tiger perched on top of a cruiser like she was stalking a target, her tail flicking back and forth. A tiger perched on a cruiser with a parking boot attached and the cable for the lights bar hanging down the side and another officer, a wolf, sitting in the driver seat.

_What the hell?_

If it had been a bunny and a fox, Bogo would have known exactly what to do, he'd have internally groaned, yelled, and then go gotten some coffee or aspirin depending on how bad the oncoming headache that they would inevitably bring was. This though… his mental gearbox ground as he tried to shift gears and figure out what the hell Wolford and Fangmeyer were doing pulling a WildeHopps stunt.

"HAH!" Fangmeyer called out, "I sunk your battleship!"

"I think you cheated on that last game! There's no way you could have hit my patrol boat first!" Wolford called back, "I want a rematch!"

The tigress smirked, "Fine, if you want to make it 5 to 3 rather than just admit defeat now, go right ahead, I'll trounce you again."

Bogo groaned, his mental gearbox having finally gotten unstuck. He sucked in a breath and prepared to bellow.

**Boop Count**

**Ralph: 2**

**Nadine: 0**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So for all of you salty sea dog pirates that are shipping these couples I though you'd like to know that there is actually a secret pirate council. Its not mythical, its just one of those things were once you know about it you're stuck under their rules forever... opps, probably should have told you all that first, oh well. New crew members for the ships I guess.
> 
> Announcements on Pirate Radio for new crew members:
> 
> Also for being the original creator of Wolfeyer and the Genesis Boop, MinscLovesBoo is hereby awarded the title of Master 'Ship'wright, and shall hence forth be known as Master 'Ship'wright MinscLovesBoo!
> 
> Cimar doesn't need any more titles he's already one of the Admirals and Pirate Lords of this ship fleet. Plus I hear that spot came with a really big pirate hat, something that would make even Captain Sparrow jealous.
> 
> Also the secret base of operations for these pirate ships commonly know as Tortuga appears to be some site known as ZNN: The Zootopia News Network, apparently you can only find it if you have a special broken compass or google.
> 
> Lastly, for all you salty dogs setting out on your own stories for these ships, you can pick up your standard issue Zootopia Pirate Flags from OceRydia at deviantart (again accessible only by special broken compass or google)
> 
> Welcome to the crew!


	3. Chapter 3 - Game On

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tigers and Wolves don't get along in real life. Couldn't possibly happen, They're cats and dogs for crying out loud! And where would a tiger and a wolf ever even have a chance to meet? It's impossible, just impossible.
> 
> Disclaimer: And apparently I'm wrong. Go figure. Credit for the new cover picture goes to The Institute of Greatly Endangered Rare Species (T.I.G.E.R.), the Rare Species Fund (R.S.F.), and Barry Bland / Barcroft USA. Disney still owns Zootopia... for now; I hear that some entrepreneuring pirate authors are trying to steal the rights to it, lets just hope Mickey doesn't catch them.
> 
> (Ao3 users - New Cover Image added to Chapter 1)

 

If wolves could sweat, Ralph would be. He still hadn't found a way out of the cruiser; He'd tried to make a run for it during the second phone app battleship game but had barely managed to get the door open before he slammed it shut to prevent Nadine's big orange and white paw that came swiping down from the roof from grabbing the opened door. His second escape attempt during the third game was aborted as he heard the roof creak as she shifted her weight when he'd tried to quietly move over to the other door. He hadn't even tried unlocking it because he was sure she was crouched above it readying to pounce on him when he bolted.

Now Ralph was sitting in this cruiser trying to simply out wait Nadine, hoping she'd give up first and head home for the night. Being trapped wasn't what was making him so nervous though.

_Don't Pick A1, Don't Pick A1, Don't Pick A1_

Nadine was up one game and this round was neck and neck. He'd finally found her patrol boat after wiping out the rest of her fleet early in the match and was one hit away from winning. Nadine on the other hand had slowly caught up, sinking one ship after with another and was working her way down his last one. She had two choices and if she picked A1 she'd hit the last undamaged portion of his battleship and win the game, but if she picked the other spot on the far side of the ship he'd knock that damned sneaky portal boat out of the water and even out the score between them.

_Don't Pick A1, Don't Pick A1,-_

The little animation on the phone screen shifted angles to show her ship firing and a shot which traveled over onto his grid where it landed… on A1.

Ralph watched in dismay as the already smoking and damaged ship took the hit, exploding spectacularly before breaking in half and sinking.

"HAH!" Fangmeyer called out victoriously, "I sunk your battleship!"

Her little damaged patrol boat was now shown on the screen sailing with fireworks in the background and a waving banner at the top of the screen that said 'VICTOR'. A little chat bubble appeared at the bottom of the screen reading 'Suck it!' and had a little wolf face emoji with the tongue sticking out to the side and 'x's for the eyes.

"I think you cheated on that last game!" Ralph shouted up at the ceiling of the cruiser, "There's no way you could have hit my patrol boat first! I want a rematch!"

He could hear the delighted smugness in Nadine's voice as she called back, "Fine, if you want to make it 5 to 3 rather than just admit defeat now, go right ahead, I'll trounce you again."

Ralph grinned at her predictable and enthusiastic response, accepting his challenge to a rematch. As unlikely as most found it, the two of them being a canid and feline, he and Nadine had become fast friends at the academy, and even better friends since then. Nadine gave as good as she got and didn't mind the rough housing that was normal for wolves, something that was simply part of their nature and learned growing up in a wolf pack. Actually, Nadine didn't seem to simply not mind it, she seemed to enjoy it as much as he did and she certainly excelled at it too. Ralph felt like she was a closer pack mate to him then some of the wolves he'd known growing up, maybe even all of them.

And that was why he couldn't let her win this battleship game... or their bet. Forget the game tickets and getting her to root for his team (though that last part was going to be awesome. He'd need to make sure to get lots of photos), This was now a game between them. Between him and his pack mate and he was going to win, no so much because he cared about winning but because this was going to be fun.

He could feel his tail thumping happily on the seat as his grin widen and he prepared a smack down comment to toss back at her.

His clever comment (or so he at least thought) was cut off by a bellowing voice that made his hackles stand on end.

" _What_ are you two still doing here," Bogo thundered loud enough Ralph would have sworn the cruiser rocked from the blast of his voice, though that might have also been because Nadine had leapt up in surprise. He could tell she had by the view through the side window where he saw her falling to the ground, fur spike in surprise and twisting around in midair to try righting herself to land on all four paws.

Ralph turned around to see the Chief, looking grimmer than usually, he'd guess about a 6.5 on the Bogo Richter scale, which meant they better come up with something sounding halfway reasonable before the Chief used both of _them_ during Monday's training lesson as volunteers to _personally_ demonstrate take downs.

Understanding the life and death importance of that, Ralph opened his mouth to smooth talk their way out of their situation.

"Um… Well, Chief… ah…"

 _And we're dead._ His mind helpfully added as he stammered, coming up with nothing and the Chief's glower rose nearing a 7.

"He, ah, locked himself in the car, Chief!" Nadine suddenly said her panicked face popping up into view through the window she'd just fallen by.

Ralph nodded vigorously, "Right. Locked myself in the cruiser, Chief! That's what I did. Nadine, ah… Officer Fangmeyer was just helping me… with the situation."

Bogo's eye twitched and his nose wrinkled like he smelled a whopping load of B.S. His eyes narrowed and his glare hit Ralph, freezing him before turning on Nadine to freeze her in place too.

In an almost pleasant voice the Chief asked slowly, "Really? You locked yourself inside the cruiser?"

 _Yep, definitely in the 7 range now_. Part of his mind noted with increasing alarm.

 _Should we take cover under the seat and try to ride this earthquake out?_ Another part suggested.

_We can't just throw Nadine under the bus!… or under Bogo, which is far worse than a bus!_

"Yes." Ralph managed to squeak, still under the full weight of Bogo's stare, "I locked myself in the cruiser. Just a… ah, silly mistake on my part, Chief." It was true after all, he had locked the cruiser to keep Nadine out and trapping himself had turned out to be a tactical mistake on his part as well.

Ralph thought he might implode from the crushing weight of the Chief's stare, but Bogo finally crossed his arms and looked at the rear tire.

"And _why_ is there a parking boot on the cruiser?" He asked, his voice as grim as his face, but Ralph felt a trickle of hope that they might survive this, or that could simply have been the relief of no longer being the direct recipient of the Chief's glower.

Nadine quickly spoke up, which Ralph was extremely grateful for because he had no idea how he was going to answer.

"Ah, sir… I put it on the car to… um, make sure it didn't roll away with Ralph… in… it…" she trailed off as the Chief's glare focused on her.

"Isn't that what the parking break is for?" The chief asked pointedly, and Ralph saw Nadine pale a bit under her fur.

"Um… she was just being extra careful?" Ralph offered not knowing what else to say and then added a quick, "Chief."

The Chief grunted, then looked at the dangling cable from the light bar on top of the cruiser and raised one eyebrow, "And what excuse do you have for that?"

"Well…" Ralph started thinking fast, "We um… didn't want to annoy the whole station if it went off?"

"Right!" Nadine said cutting in, "With Ralph locking himself in the cruiser, it would set the car security system off if he tried manually unlocking it. Can't have the cruiser siren going off nonstop annoying everyone trying to work."

Ralph was nodding his head again as Nadine spoke, "Yep. We thought it was best to just unplugged it. just in case… ah, Chief."

Bogo's stare had gone flat as he stood there his arms crosses watching them and Ralph's hope of getting out of this predicament rose minutely since Bogo had not already flattened them for there idiotic excuses. If you could survived the initial wave of The Wrath of Bogo when you incurred it, then you had a chance.

Still the Chief was watching them like they were unruly children caught stealing from the cookie jar. He grunted again before looking back at Ralph, "And _how_ exactly did you lock yourself in the cruiser, Officer Wolford?"

"Um…"

That was about the best Ralph could come up with and he swallowed hard, his budding hope for survival dying. There was a little voice in the back of his mind crying out in a despairing tone, _Game over man! Game over!_

Ralph gave Nadine a desperate glance, which she returned, her eyes wide.

"Did you by chance drop the keys and get them lodged under the seat?" Bogo asked and Ralph nodded his head frantically saying, "Um, Yes! That's it. That's it exactly!"

He stopped nodding and speaking as soon as his mind caught up to his mouth. Bogo's tone had been pleasant, helpful even. Ralph looked up and saw that there was a small smile on the Chief's face which instantly set off every self-preservation alarm and instinct he had and a shiver of pure fear shot down his spine.

"Well then, why don't I see if I can help." The Chief said in a overly helpful way that just sounded _wrong_ coming from Bogo as he started toward them and the cruiser while rolling up the sleeves of his uniform shirt. And all the while he wore that little smile.

 _The chief_ _ **never**_ _smiles_! Part of his mind clamored in terror.

"Can't have you two here all night playing _phone_ _games_ because the car keys are stuck under the seat," Bogo said as he stopped by the rear of the cruiser. Ralph gave Nadine one final desperate look seeing clear distress on her face before he looked back just in time to see Bogo reach down and grab the rear bumper with both of his large hoofs. The chief looked up right at Ralph, his small smile growing to a full broad toothy and utterly terrifying grin, and that voice in Ralphs mind cried out one last time, _Game over Man!_ and then the Chief spoke.

"Now let's see if we can dislodge this silliness- oh, I mean keys."

Ralph saw Bogo's fore arms flex so impressively that he put Popeye the sailor goat to shame and the entire rear end of the cruiser was lifted violently into the air, sending Ralph falling back off the seat and into the foot well, where he bounced a few times against the pedals and steering column as Bogo shook the rear end of the car up and down like someone shaking a piggybank.

Ralph bounce one final time as the rear end of the cruiser was dropped back down to the garage floor where it rocked on its springs.

Ralph raised his head, a bit disoriented and caught a view of Nadine staring open jawed at the Chief in something between awe and terror.

"Well, did that dislodge those keys?" Bogo called out, "Or do I need to try harder to shake them loose?"

Ralph quickly dug through his pocket grabbing the key fob and held it up as high as he could as he lay on the floor, even shaking it a few times on its key chain for emphasis as he wheezed, "Nope. Good. Found it."

"Oh, good. That solves that problem," Bogo said, still in that scary as hell faux helpful voice, as he came around the side of the cruiser and looked down at Ralph through the side window.

The Chief, dropping that happy tone, for his usual gruff voice, much to Ralphs relief, said "Now, why don't you unlock the cruiser so you and Fangmeyer can get the out of here before I decide that you two want to work extra shifts this weekend." Bogo gave both him and Nadine a stern threatening glare, "Parking Duty is _always_ available after all."

"No, sir! I mean, yes sir!, I mean we'll be going right now, sir!" Ralph said, scrambling back up and unlocking the car. Nadine was quickly opened the door to get in but stopped at a gesture from Bogo.

"Since Officer Wolford seems to have issues with losing your cruiser's keyfob," Bogo said pointedly looking at Ralph, "I think its best if Officer Fangmeyer holds onto the keys and drives for the next week."

"But, sir," Nadine started to protest but was cut off by a waved hoof from the Chief.

"Don't Care. Wolford drives most of the time between you two, and you _Fangmeyer_ are getting out of practice, so _you_ will be the designated driver for your team for the next week. Take it as an opportunity for Wolford to teach you some of his tricks." The Chief turned and started walking away muttering to himself and rubbing his face. He opened up the door to his designated cruiser and got in before looking back at Ralph and Nadine, his eyes narrowing.

"And if you two decide to lounge around and goof off in the precinct garage again, I'll stick you two with one of those joke mobiles instead of your cruiser, Do I Make Myself CLEAR?"

Both of them nodded quickly, not wanting to be stuck riding around in the ridiculous and slow three wheeled meter maid vehicles, the biggest of which would be a very tight fit for the two of them.

Bogo snorted seeming satisfied and slammed the door of his cruiser shut, started the engine and pulled out of the parking spot, headed for the garage exit and both Ralph and Nadine sighed in relief.

* * *

The two of them swapped seats and were quite for a bit as Nadine drove. She had to admit that the chief might have been right about her being a little out of practice; she felt like she was just a tad clumsy as she drove the big cruiser and had to pay more attention to what she was doing than she should have. Ralph was certainly the better driver of the two of them and by some sort of unspoken agreement he had become the one to always drive. Nadine didn't mind, she actually preferred Ralph to be their driver, as that left her free to be able to do anything else, such as darting criminals on the run or being able to leap out and continue the chase on foot if necessary. But she realized now that that had caused her driving skills to get a bit rusty.

"You'll have to take the next left if you want to drop me off at my place before heading home." Ralph said breaking the silence and Nadine realized that she'd been driving their normal route, were Ralph would drop her off at her apartment before heading to his home in a small private neighborhood that was mostly owned by his pack.

Nadine shifted lanes, shaking her head, "I don't know how Bogo does it."

"What? The most terrifying boss in Zootopia part, the always seeming to know when anyone is messing around part, or the always being able to use a situation to get something done part?" Ralph asked with a half-hearted chuckle.

"Yes," Nadine replied with a snort, "All of that."

"Well, Nick claims Bogo sold his soul to a demon for dark powers and ridiculous strength, though I think he was kidding around… mostly." Ralph mussed.

"Huh, I might just believe that after watching Bogo shake our cruiser like it was a toy," she replied, shivering a bit. Everybody new Bogo was strong, sometimes they just forgot _how_ strong, "We might want to be a bit more careful around Bogo next week so we don't incur any more of his wrath."

"Or just wait until Judy and Nick do something else and the Chief redirects his focus onto them," Ralph snickered. "I'll bet you a boop that by the end of Monday, the chief will be grinding his teeth in frustration over something else they've done."

"Do I look like a fool?" Nadine said, shooting him a 'are you crazy?' glance before shifting focus back to the road, "That's a _suckers_ bet."

"No, but you already agreed to one suckers bet, Nadine," Ralph said grinning, and then snickered, "I'm going to start shopping around online tonight to find you some Pact Team apparel to wear. Hummm…" he looked back over at her looking her up and down, "Might have to get it special ordered for you, they generally don't bother making anything larger than wolf sized considering the market they're selling to, what size are you anyway?"

"Ralph! Didn't your mother teach you any manners?!" Nadine said in a mock scandalized voice, which covered up her slight embarrassment quite well, "You never ask a lady about the age, weight or size!"

"She tried and failed, I'm afraid." Ralph retorted with a dramatic sigh, before his grin returned, "Besides I already know your age and weight, I put together that surprise birthday party for you and we've been sparring since the academy, so what does it matter if you tell me your clothing size?"

"A girl has to keep some secrets," Nadine said with an indignant sniff, though she made sure to look forward to where she was driving so Ralph wouldn't see the small smile the memories of that party brought. She hadn't had a real birthday party since she'd been a cub, and after finding out about that, Ralph had decided that needed to change. Goofy wolf or not Nadine didn't think she'd ever find a better friend that Ralph, and she needed to think up something special for his upcoming birthday too.

"Well, if you won't tell me, I guess I'll just have to guess," Ralph said and snickered, "So don't blame me if you end up with something a bit tight." He snickered again, even louder, looking over at her as if trying to imagine her wearing something besides her uniform, "though in that case, maybe I can get you one of the Pack's cheerleading squad uniforms; _That_ would be quite the sight! _Nadine Fangmeyer_ , dressed as a _cheerleader_!"

"In your dreams wolf!" Nadine growled back, trying not to blush as Ralph broke out into laughter, "You're going to be the one wearing my team's colors!"

Ralph's laughs slowed down to chuckles, and he shook his head in consideration, "You know, I think you'd look quite good dressed Pack colors," he gestured at her with his paw, his tone and smile reaching an unbearable level of teasing, "it _would_ go well with your fur."

"Never going to happen, Ralph," Nadine said adamantly, before pulling over in front of the entrance to his neighborhood. She put the car in park and then turned to look back at her broadly grinning partner, putting on a smirk of her own, "I'm going to take sooo much pleasure in making you come shopping with me so that we can pick out your jersey, when _I_ win our bet. And don't worry I'll make _sure_ that I get plenty of pictures to share around too." She widened her smile, her teeth showing in such a predatory manner that would have been inappropriate for general public and Ralph's look of confidence faltered, his eyes going just a little wide.

She reached over slowly in Ralphs direction and both of his paws shot up to cover his nose, but rather than trying to boop him, she just reached past and opened his door, smiling at he even more.

"Get a good Night's rest Ralph," she almost purred in a dangerously anticipatory way is if shed sighted her prey and was preparing to pounce, "because your dreams are the only place you'll end up beating me, and come tomorrow… well, I'm going to crush that little head start you have, just like The Prowlers are going to crush the Pack." She leaned in close to Ralph, every tooth and fang on full display and Ralph's eyes went wider as she stopped only an inch away from where his paws where still protecting his nose, "See you tomorrow for the game, _wolf_."

She tapped a finger lightly on his paw covered nose only just in front of her own and was delighted to see how Ralph scrambled out of the car, letting out a laugh at his hurried retreat.

Ralph, paws still protecting his nose glowered back at her, but she only grinned. They both new that she was the stronger, bigger of the two predators, and it tweaked Ralph's ego, that dominate alpha wolf side he had. Head on head she'd probably win any straight fight, but Ralph was crafty and he wouldn't let her larger size deter him. It was one of the things she liked most about her partner.

Ralphs eyes narrowed and his paws lowered, his lips pulling up to a half smirk and in a challenging throaty growl he pointed at her, "You seriously think you'll be able to pass my lead tomorrow while in the middle of my family pack, _tiger_?"

Nadine leaned forward, a thrill of excitement running threw her, and met his challenging growl with her own, "Just watch me, _wolf_."

She'd gotten dragged into this bet because Ralph couldn't leave well enough alone; he didn't understand some of the more subtle aspects of feline culture, being a wolf and all, and was just him being his normal playful self. Nadine though, had to admit that she was starting to find this bet exciting; Pitting herself against Ralph had always been fun after all. Plus she _really_ wanted to see Ralph rooting for her team. Just the thought of him having to sit on her side of the crowd was enough to almost make her giggle. Not that she'd ever let _him_ see her do that.

A full grin broke out across Ralph's face and his tail started wagging, "Oh, don't worry, I'll be watching you _tiger_. Watching as you _lose._ "

A voice called out from across the street, that Nadine recognized as Ralph's younger brother Bill, "Ralph there you are. You said you were going to be back an hour ago, were going to be late for the family Barbeque Mom and Dad are hosting for the season start. Stop flirting and come on."

Both Nadine and Ralph's heads snapped around and in near unison they both shouted, "We're _not_ flirting!"

Even from across the street Nadine could see the other wolf roll his eyes, before waving at his brother in a 'hurry up' gesture and heading down the steps from the house toward the end of the neighborhood where there where some grills set up in a vacant lot where other wolves were collecting.

"Seriously," Nadine groused, glaring at the other wolf, "it's not like we actually were-"

"Boop!"

Nadine's eyes crossed, looking down at Ralphs finger touching her nose as her whiskers twitched, a sudden heat coming to her cheeks.

"You let your guard down!" Ralph said in a ridiculously pleased voice and then snatched his paw back as Nadine tried grabbing his arm.

"Why you little cheater!" she snarled, lounging at him but being brought up short by her seat belt only for Ralph to laugh as he turned, waving jauntily at her.

"See you tomorrow, Nadine!" he laughed, with a huge smile, "I look forward to seeing you lose _again_ to me!"

Nadine watched in frustration as Ralph walked by the neighborhood's gate house and street fence, in the direction his brother had gone, his tail swooshing back and forth behind him in a manner that Nadine found far to energetic and prideful and made her want to leap on it to teach him a lesson or two.

With one last growl, she closed his door and pulled back onto the street, heading toward her home, grumbling the entire way and planning how she would get Ralph back. By the time she reached her apartment and was unlocking her door, her heated face had cooled and she thought she might have a plan for tomorrow.

 _I can't let Ralph win_. She thought to herself

 _Hell, I can't let him keep booping my nose!_ She felt her cheeks heat back up just a tad, then her face flushed more as she thought back over everything that had happened in the last couple of hours and just how many times Ralph had booped her.

She knew wolves were gregarious, sociable mammals, that had a tendency to play around and rough house with their family and friends. Nadine having grown up an only cub with no siblings, had found that aspect of her friendship with Wolford endearing and enjoyable. Ralph might think booping her was just normal playful fun but it meant something a little bit different to felines.

_It's not like he's_ _**actually** _ _trying to flirt with me, he just doesn't know._

Nadine hadn't even realized she started pacing in her small apartment, though she preferred the term cozy.

_And if I try to call off the bet right now he'll declare victory by default and I can't let him win!_

She kept pacing, her tail snapping as she thought.

_Well, I'll just have to boop him first, win, and win fast before he can keep booping my nose._

She pulled out her cell phone and scrolled to a number that she only had because of the time she'd had to help Ralph home after a night of partying, where her partner had partied a bit too hard. She'd wanted to be able to check up on him later without having to bother him, so she'd gotten his housemates phone number.

_And if I'm going to win, and win fast then I need to get started._

Nadine stopped her pacing, a grin forming as the phone ringed. She'd get Ralph, and she'd get him in a way he'd never see coming.

"Hello?" said a voice as the line connected and Nadine could faintly here other conversations in the background.

"Bill, hey this is Nadine. You're not near your brother right now are you?"

"Oh, Hey!" Bills voice came back, recognition clear in it, "No, he's over in line, waiting for the grilled chicken to finish. What's up? Ralph said you're coming over to our house tomorrow to watch the game." Bill gave an amused huff, "Well, that and something about how he's going to crush you and win some bet."

Nadine grinned.

"Sure am. About that bet, though… Care to help me pull a fast one over on Ralph? I can make it worth your while and it should be funny as hell."

There was a moments silence and then Bill spoke in a tone filled with conspiratorial delight, "Oh, this sounds good! Go on, I'm listening."

**Boop Count**

**Ralph: 3**

**Nadine: 0**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also some credit should be given to King in Yellow a FanFiciton dot net author with some great skill and fluffy Wildehopps stories from which I commandeered the ideas for the sports teams.


	4. Chapter 4 - A New Day, A New Beginning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That cover picture of the wolf and tiger cub won't leave my imagination and keep putting me a state of cuteness adoring 'Daaaaawwwwwww'. Hopefully this offering to the Zootopia gods will convince them to stop torturing my dreams with images of ridiculously cute animals.
> 
> Disclaimer: Don't Watch The Movie! It's a trap made by Disney! Once you watch it you'll never get away; you'll be stuck forever thinking about foxes and bunnies and tigers and wolves and boxes and funnies and wigers and... oh, you already watched it? Well... Disney now owns your soul as well as the movie.
> 
> Approved and Edited by: Cimar of Turalis Wildehopps. (Watch out people, the rumor is he's one of the top admirals and pirate lords of the WildeHopps fleet. If he starts getting Wolfeyer ships under his control then the world might be doomed to die under a sea of fluff)

 

Nadine found herself sitting in a fancy restaurant trying to remember why she was there. She looked across the candle lit table only to find herself staring at the pompous face of the buff siberian tiger that had been the last guy she'd gone out on a date with… what, a year, year and a half ago? And what had his name been, again? Rick? No, Mick? Maybe Dick? No, but he sure had been one though; He probably just had a really _really_ small one and was just trying to compensate.

She snickered, and then the oddity of the whole situation hit her again.

 _Wait, what the… I thought I dumped him after that dinner? What is going on…?_ she looked around the restaurant in confusion, then down at herself and realized she was wearing an actual _dress_. She certainly hadn't bothered with the hassle of wearing a dress and makeup that night, that had been just a first date after all and she hadn't even been sure if she really wanted to go out with him.

 _This makes no sense, why am I-_ Nadine froze as her gaze traveled back up to find that the black and white striped tiger was gone and instead that there was a gray and white wolf sitting across from her.

" _Ralph_?!" she spluttered in confusion, _What the hell?!_ "What are _you_ doing here?"

Ralph didn't respond. Instead he leaned forward placing his elbows on the table using his paws to prop up his grinning muzzle, and looked right at her, the gold flecks in his eyes sparkling playfully.

She was about to ask him again when his grin widened and he motioned with his paw, making a ridiculously silly imitation of a feline batting at her, with and equally silly and teasing, 'Rawr'.

Nadine's heart rate spiked dangerously and she nearly choked on her own breath as the glass of water she hadn't even realized she'd been holding slipped from her fingers and hit the floor, shattering into a thousand pieces. She just stared, dumbstruck, at the wolf across from her.

_Did he just? No… Can't be… he wouldn't have!..._

_Thu-dump. Thu-dump. Thu-dump. Thu-dump_. Nadine could feel her heart frantically beating away like a drummer at a rock concert, frantically wailing away on the drum set as if intent on breaking them. The room suddenly felt hot, too hot. Everything around her was blurry. All she could see was the table in front of her… and the grinning wolf.

 _Thu-dump-Thu-dump-Thu-dump._ Her heart seemed to beat ever faster as her mind spun.

_He wouldn't have!... but he did… but he Wouldn't!... would he?_

_Thu-dumpThu-dumpThu-dump_

The grin on his muzzle grew just a touch more, matching the teasing sparkle in his eyes.

It was too much. Something in Nadine, something beyond her control, something base and instinctual, took over and answered the challenge.

She roared back at him, roared like she had never roared before in her life. Roared so loud that any mammal, no matter how tough or strong or determined should have cowered. But Ralph just leaned across the table and lightly booped her on the nose with a finger, silencing her roar in a single motion.

Her heart skipped a beat. The rooms temperature was beyond sweltering, beyond searing, it felt like her face was pressed against the open doors of a blast furnace.

"You let your guard down!" Ralph said in a ridiculously pleased voice, still grinning as he tapped her nose a second time, sending her whiskers twitching as her heart skipping another beat, while he whispered,

"Boop!"

Nadine snapped her teeth at his paw but he was too quick, pulling it away, now happily laughing. She roared and leaped over the table, but her dress inhibited the movement and she missed her prey, falling short.

Ralph's finger tapped her nose again and he said in a delighted tone,

"Boop!"

Nadine snarled and split the hem of the dress with a claw, giving her legs more freedom.

Ralph tapped her nose again and then fled, laughing as she chased. He turned his head calling out behind him,

"Boop!"

She chased the smiling, happy wolf through blurry hallways but could not catch him. He was always just ahead of her, turning down endless corridors, winding and weaving through innumerable doors. She'd pounce thinking she'd have him and then he'd slip away, having tapped her nose before dashing off.

"Boop!"

She roared again, defiantly, still giving chase or was he chasing her? She shook her head. She _would_ catch him, and when she caught him she'd make him pay, she'd boop his nose-

"Boop!"

She roared again.

"Boop!"

But he got away.

"Boop!"

She was close on his heels but his tail whipped behind him.

"Boop!"

Her heart was racing, thundering. And he tricked her, beat her, tapping her nose again but his voice had started to shifting, changing from the happy playful wolf she liked being around to something else.

"Beep!"

Nadine frowned stopping, and Ralph turned, tapping her nose again.

"Beep!"

Something wasn't right. Something was wrong, terribly wrong.

"BEEP!"

She looked at Ralph, still smiling at her as he playfully tapped her nose another time. And the knot of worry grew.

"BEEP!"

She grabbed him, pulling him close, looking at him, sniffing him, trying to figure out _what_ was wrong with her wolf. But Ralph just continued to smile, his expression now looked almost robotic as he tapped her nose again.

"BEEP!"

Her worry turned into terror, as his beautiful gold flecked eyes now stared past her vacantly as he spoke in a machine like tone.

" _BEEP!_ "

Nadine clutched him to her not sure what was wrong, not able to do anything and she opened her mouth, screaming out his name in desperation.

" _ **BEEP**_ _!_ "

Nadine's eyes popped open as she screamed Ralph's name and pitched her blaring alarm clock across the room where it smash into the wall. It gave out one last warbling, broken ' **BE** Eeeplop' before falling to the ground, its face cracked and casing smashed in.

Nadine sat up panting, looking around wildly. But she was in her bedroom and the only thing the early morning sunlight peeked through her blinds showed was a room devoid of a certain wolf.

"It was a dream." She mumbled to herself trying to calm her racing heart and breath, "Just a dream, Ralph's alright, it was just a dream. He's…"

Her brow furrowed as her jarred awake mind started to slowly think again, recalling just what had happened in that dream that was already starting to become hazy as she fully woke up.

"Was I dreaming about Ralph?!" she muttered in disbelief, only for a slew of scattered memories of her dream to resurface. An exhilarating chase interrupted by a blaring alarm, a gray paw booping her, a candle lit table and a playful little roar from a familiar wolf.

Her heart rate shot back up again and she swore violently. Then swore again.

There was a pounding sound that resonated up from her floor, followed by the shout of the old codger of a goat that lived below her.

"It's too early in the morning for that, go back to sleep!"

He pounded on his ceiling a few more times for good measure and then Nadine could hear him muttering loudly, "I swear, this apartment started to go to the dumps when they started letting _preds_ in; That neighbor of hers is bad enough, always making a racket with who she brings home, but now her too?!"

Nadine's face flushed but before she could respond, another voice joined the first, "Oh, hush Herald, those nice young girls are no louder than we were when we were young. Put that cane down and come back to bed."

"Ya, listen to your wife, Herald! And leave Nadine alone!" came a shout from the wall across Nadine's low ceilinged, but spaciously cozy apartment, where her friend, a fiery little bobcat lived next door, "She hasn't gotten laid in far too long anyway!"

"Shut it, all of you!" Nadine bellowed not able to take it anymore, and burying her face in her pillow as shouted, "I just had a bad dream! That is _ALL_!"

"Ouuhhh! A ' _bad'_ dream?!" Megan called through the wall, emphasizing 'bad' in a way that made it sound extremely naughty, "Why _Nadine_! I didn't know you were into _that_ , you _bad kitty_!" she said, snickering.

Nadine growled and threw her pillow, sending it sailing out her bedroom door to smack loudly against the far wall where the other cats voice had come from.

The bobcat only laughed in return.

"Shut it Megan!" Nadine snapped, to another laugh.

"There, feel better now Nadine?" Megan called back.

"No, now I'm irritated!" she growled.

"But you aren't thinking about that dream anymore!" Megan called back sweetly and Nadine snapped her muzzle shut and instead of responding just glowered at the wall. The bobcat was right though, she wasn't thinking about the hazy details of that dream anymore.

There was one last loud snicker and a, "Your welcome!" from Megan and Nadine huffed getting up to start her day. She could use a good morning workout to distract her from this mess she'd woken up to. Maybe a long run and some extra time in the gym with the boxing bag.

That she decided with another huff was probably a great idea. She really felt like punching something right now, what she didn't know...but hitting _something_ would be nice.

…

One run later and Nadine felt considerably better as she slammed her wrapped fist into the punching bag, imagining that it was her stupid alarm clock. Megan and her downstairs neighbor's loud comments and exchanges where nothing new, though Nadine was usually just a spectator listening to the free apartment comedy show. She was used to it and Megan, though seemingly incapable of ever being serious, was a good friend that always was there to help, if in a roundabout and sometimes annoying way.

Nadine visualized the face of her alarm clock and smashed her other fist into the bag, sending it rocking again.

She really wasn't too irritated by her neighbors, and she felt like blaming Ralph was a bit unfair since he hadn't even been there… though he had been the one to get her into their ridiculous bet. He was just playing around though, starting another friendly game between them. He was just being _Ralph_. She couldn't blame him for being the way he was. Anyway, she _liked_ how he was; always up for a game or a challenge. It was what made being around him so much fun.

Nadine spun, slamming the heel of her hindpaw into the bag with a resounding _THUMP_ that sent the heavily weighted large bag careening back and forth on its hanging chain, and consequently for a few of the other mammals in the gym to look at her with respectfully impressed expressions and maybe a hint of mild anxiety. The bag came swinging back toward her, and Nadine caught it with a powerful right hook nearly doubling it over on itself before sending it rocking back in the other direction.

Nadine though didn't notice the glances, and instead followed up the punch with another combination, feeling a smile form on her muzzle and her tail snap behind her as she pummeled the bag.

If Ralph wanted to play, then she'd play. She'd win this bet, this game, she promised to herself, grinning now and hit the punching bag with even more force. No little misunderstanding was going to stop her from winning! She jabbed her paw forward twice, then threw a powerful straight punch and moved forward as the bag rocked back. There was _nothing_ Ralph was going to be able to do to stop her! Hah, he wanted to challenge _her_?! The bag started to swing back and she hit it with such a strong uppercut that the bag was lifted clear into the air, its chain coming unhooked from the ceiling.

Nadine's smile split her face. Ralph, might have the lead… _for now_ , but today was a new day. A new beginning. She could already see the expression on his face when she made her opening move. She'd take her time, toy with him as she _slowwwly_ came prowling forward to boop his nose. She'd make it clear that despite everything he could do, _she_ was going to win.

 _Boop me, will he?_ Nadine thought grinning for all she was worth and moved, turning in a full roundhouse kick that hit the bag as it started to fall toward the ground and sent it tumbling in a spinning arc to land a good five feet away from her, where it skidded a few extra feet along the ground before coming to rest.

Nadine gave a satisfied growl, her tail snapping one last time and headed over to grab her water bottle, all the while thinking happy thoughts about how she was going to enjoy beating Ralph at his own game. She smiled broadly, failing to notice all the other eyes in the gym following her in terrified awe or the trail of sand the broken punching bag had left in its wake after skidding across the floor.

She grabbed her stuff, downed the entire water bottle and headed toward the showers still smiling to herself.

 _I hope you're ready Ralph, because here I come!_ Nadine thought and smirked.

**Boop Count**

**Ralph: 3**

**Nadine: 0**

**Dream Ralph: 16**

**(Dream Boops don't count! :P )**


	5. Chapter 5 - Game Day: Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Disney owns Zootopia, But I bought stock in Disney, therefore I own part of Disney. And since I own part of Disney, and Disney owns Zootopia I own part of Zootopia. Muhahahaha... wait that still won't stop me from getting sued for copy right infringement. Well darn.
> 
> Approved and Edited by: Cimar of Turalis WildeHopps, Feared pirate lord of the Wildehopps fleet, (it's rumored among the other pirates that unlike all the other pirate captains, he doesn't have a talking parrot... he has two talking parrots, and they spit out Zootopia quotes! *Squawk - He hustled you Good! He hustled you Good!*)

 

"Ralph, seriously, you don't think that's actually going to work, do you?" Bill asked from the kitchen where he was loading up the fridge with sodas and beer in preparation for the game.

"And why wouldn't it?" Ralph replied, snickering as he used his claws to cut out the bottom of the small box. He could feel his tail wagging like mad behind him but he didn't even bother trying to control it. This was going to be so much fun, it was perfect! He snickered again, tail wagging even faster. The look on Nadine's face when he booped her nose would be priceless!

"Because that's one of the stupidest ideas I think I've ever heard from you." Bill said closing the fridge door and coming over to the living room.

Ralph finished with his work examined it and snicker again, grinning over at his sibling.

"This just looks stupid because it's so simple, its brilliant." He held up the tissue box gesturing at it. "The Pack is going to crush the Prowlers today; it's going to be such a total and complete shut out that Nadine is going to be in tears! And that," he puffed out his chest a bit, "is when I will oh so cleverly offer her a tissue," Ralph held the tissue box out in front of him with both paws, one of which was conspicuously placed underneath it where he'd cut a hole in the bottom, "being _of course_ , the chivalrous mammal that I am, and when she thanks me and takes the tissue, my clever trap springs, " his paw popped up from the tissue box, finger making a tapping motion, "and I boop her nose!"

Ralph smirked pleased with his little plan as Bill just started at him flatly.

"Ralph?" Bill asked, and gestured at the box " _That_ is about as stupid as trying to chase your own tail!"

Ralph extracted his paw carefully, rearranging the tissues in the box to cover up his tampering and smirked back at his sibling, "As I recall, stupid or not we _both_ did that as kits _and_ as I recall we _did_ catch our tails."

"And we got so dizzy running in circles we almost threw up!" Bill countered.

"Still caught them," Ralph said holding the box up and examining it, pleased with how it looked.

Bill facepalmed, before shaking his head and returning to the kitchen.

"Will you just clean up that mess you made, the rest of the gang and your friend are going to be over soon."

* * *

Nadine was wearing a huge smile as she walked into the restaurant to pick up her bribe for the help in setting up Ralph today. She hadn't felt this excited or giddy about anything since her first day at the academy (though then she'd been a bit anxious as well). She walked up to the counter where there was a huge bull wearing a (literal) 10 gallon cowboy hat and an apron saying, "Eat More Chikin!"

Nadine didn't usually splurge on food but Bug-a-Burger simply wouldn't do for today, She'd needed to be absolutely sure that Ralph's pack mates stayed bought for her little plan but the promise of the best chicken sandwiches from the award winning predator restaurant chain in the city would sure do it.

"Here to pick up my order, should be under the name Fangmeyer," she said handing across her credit card to the massive, nearly bogo sized bovine, who grunted, tipping back his hat on his horns as he took it.

Nadine had to grin as she looked around the restaurant while the bull ran her card and got her order; the chain was a bit like an oxymoron, being a restaurant run by bovines that specialized in chicken foods for predators. Apparently, it had started from an old family of cowboys and cowgirls in an attempt to save their struggling poultry ranch but one way or another it had ended up as the best rated predator specific restaurant chain in the city. The only reason they hadn't run Bug-a-burger out of business was that real chicken was _far_ more expensive than bug based meat substitutes, even more expensive than seafood.

A minute and a wince later after looking at the bill, Nadine was on her way toward Ralph's house with her large bag of food. The price for it, expensive as it was, would be _so_ worth it to see her partners face when she booped him. She felt her tail curl and snap in anticipation as she smiled.

* * *

Ralph was chatting with a few of the other wolves, sitting on the big wraparound sofa in front of the TV displaying the pre-game commentary, but mostly he was waiting excitedly for Nadine to arrive. Most of the mammals here were wolves from his pack that he and Bill had grown up with, well actually _all_ of them were except for Darrel's girlfriend Cindy who was an arctic wolf from a pack in Tundra Town. But Nadine had never really seemed to mind being the only non-wolf when he'd started invited her over to these kinds of get togethers.

The first time he'd done it, even though Bill and the rest of the younger wolves had accepted Nadine fairly quickly, even going so far as to give her a sort of unofficial 'friend of the pack' status, it had sent an uproar through the rest of the pack that had taken the pack alphas' to calm down. By now though, most of the louder voiced complainers had gotten used to seeing the tiger around the pack neighborhood with him and had gone on to complaining about other transgressions against what they saw as nearly sacred tradition.

Ralph thought that he might have to thank Darrel and Cindy at some point, because recently they were all the old tradition bound codgers in the pack had been complaining about. Not only was Cindy an _arctic_ wolf (*Gasp* The _scandal_!) but Darrel had publicly invited her over to participate in the packs monthly full moon howl night. Ralph nearly snickered just thinking back to some of the aghast horrified faces when she'd shown up with him, but besides some of the old diehards that complained about _everything_ (Ralph swore they could win the lottery and find a way to complain about what to do with the money) most of the pack had accepted Cindy without too much fuss. Pluss anyone who looked at them could see that disapproval or not _they_ were going to happen. The two were already at the point in their relationship where Darrel was paying for their dates and dinners instead of splitting the bill, which might not be a big deal to other mammals but was for wolves, even the his younger generation wasn't immune to all those old-school traditions. Inviting Cindy to the pack howl was just their way of making it clear that they were serious to those who thought or hoped it was just a temporary youthful fling. Regardless it had finally gotten the old coots to stop complaining about how _improper_ it was to be such close friends with a tiger, and more importantly to the old stuckups, how no _cat_ should be allowed in _pack_ territory.

Luckily though those loudmouths were just a few of the older wolves who had nothing better to do then gripe or shake their canes at kits while yelling at them to get off their neatly manicured lawns. None of his generation really cared one way or another and after getting to know Nadine most of them treated her nearly like the pack member Ralph considered her to be.

There was a knock on the door, and Ralph turned around just in time to see one of the other wolves open it and let in a familiar tigress. Ralph grinned, leaning across the top of the sofa to wave jauntily at the tiger and call out, "Nice for you to actually show up Nadine! Thought you might stay home and hide seeing as how we're about to crush you _kitties_!"

Nadine finished talking with the other wolf and turning to him, used her free paw to tug at the red and blue jersey shirt she was wearing, emphasizing the big number ten on it.

"Forgot already that your new star is just a _pup_ compared to our living legend?" Nadine called back with a smirk.

Ralph was just about to reply when the smell from the bag she was carrying hit her nose and he took a deep sniff.

"Nadine, you didn't, did you?! Did you actually grab Chik-Fil-A?" Ralph asked, his mouth starting to water. Nadine with an even bigger grin held up the big bag, turning it so that the restaurant's logo was clearly visible.

"Nadine! Seriously, you shouldn't have, we're all pitching in for the food but that won't cover the cost of that!" Ralph said a bit worriedly, even as he felt his tail wagging in anticipation. It looked like she had gotten more than enough for everyone, but that couldn't have been cheap, plus there was the propriety of the whole thing. Everyone always pitched in to cover food and drinks at these little get togethers; this wasn't like the pack barbeque where the pack alphas had been in charge of setting it up.

Nadine though, just rolled her eyes, "I'm not a _wolf_ , Ralph. Remember?" she pointed to her striped fur, "See, stripes and all, I'm pretty sure I'm a tiger. Doesn't that exempt me from all your silly little pack rules and dominance games?"

"No," Ralph said, feeling a bit conflicted because that chicken smelled _really_ good, "Not really, and especially not on pack grounds."

Nadine let out a huff, but before she could say anything else Bill spoke up.

"Don't worry about it." Ralph cocked his head looking at his sibling a bit confused as he went over toward Nadine, a huge grin across plastered on his sibling's face. "The food she brought isn't coming out of the party funds, this is part of a personal trade."

The other wolf stopped right in front of Nadine as Ralph frowned, his tail having completely stopped as he tried to figure out what the hell was going on. Bill got along well with Nadine but he didn't know the two of them talked or ever saw each other outside of when Ralph invited her over. He hadn't thought that they even had each other's numbers. Not that there was anything _wrong_ with Bill and Nadine doing stuff together but Ralph couldn't stop the uncomfortable feeling of something almost like jealousy at the thought of Nadine hanging out without him, or at least hanging out with another _wolf._ He never felt this way when Nadine and Judy and Francine went out for girl nights, and that only confused him more since he couldn't understand why on earth he might feel like this.

"Okay, _tiger_ ," Bill said and Ralph felt his hackles rise a bit. He didn't like Bill calling her that. He didn't like it at all, "I talked to the others and set up everything just like you asked. Did you hold up your end of the deal?"

Ralph frowned more, _Deal, what deal? What the hell are they talking about?_ Ralph looked around in confusion but all the other wolves seemed to understand whatever was going on and were watching the two eagerly.

Nadine held out the bag which Bill took and started shuffling through it as some of the other wolves starting calling over,

"Hey did she get mine? The number two with no pickles?"

"What about the extra large order of chicken stripes?"

"She didn't forget the side sauces, did she?"

Ralph was completely confused now, and shouted over to Bill in frustration, "What by Balto, is going on?!"

"Hold on a second everyone!" Bill said loudly waving a paw before continuing to rifle through the bag, checking its contents. He frowned and pulled out two sandwich boxes.

"These weren't part of our deal." He said looking at Nadine.

"Opps," she reached over and grabbed the them, "Sorry those are mine, everything else should be there; I double checked the list you sent me before I left."

Bill took one last look in the bag before nodding and looking back up at Nadine.

"Yes, it's all here. You, _tiger_ ," Ralph bristled this time when Bill called her that, "have yourself a deal."

His sibling turned back around letting out an unnecessary whistle to get everyone's attention and with all the wolves watching him spoke up.

"Okay everyone! You all know the agreement and Ms. Fangmeyer has held up her end. Time for us to keep ours."

"Bill," Ralph called over again his irritation showing a bit, "What the bloody hell are you talking about?" but Bill ignored him.

"Everyone ready?" Bill asked and there were nods and enthusiastic shouts.

"Good," Bill turned to face Ralph and pointed right at him with his paw before yelling, " ** _Get Him!_** "

All of the wolves turned following Bills pointing claw, and in the moment before they all leap, Ralph saw Nadine grinning at him in way that he could only call wolfish, and he had a sudden, terrible, horrible suspicion about their whole 'deal'.

_Those traitors!_

But the other wolves had already _moved_ , and Ralph found himself fighting for all he was worth.

He had grown up tussling and roughhousing with the other wolves his whole life, so a playful brawl wasn't anything new; there were even a set of unspoken rules like no clawing or hard biting. This time though, Ralph couldn't help feeling that the fight was stacked a bit unfairly.

He'd always been a good fighter, and the ZPD had trained him to be an even better one but despite all the skill Ralph could bring to bear as he tumbled off the couch, rolling on the floor and trying to throw off the other wolves, the fight was brutally short and he found himself pinned to the ground as he was literally dog piled.

There was one moment when he almost escaped, but Bill the colluding traitorous pack mate of his stopped that by landing on top of him with all the others.

"Oh come on guys!" he shouted as he tried to squirm out from under them, but at least four other wolves were helping to pin him, "This is _so_ not fair! Not fair at all! How was I supposed to even have a chance, with everyone teaming up against me?!"

"You weren't," A smug noise said and Ralph turned his head to see Nadine casually leaning against the front door.

"You see Ralph," she continued, her tail curling and snapping back lazily, "You _never_ had a chance at winning."

She smiled at him broadly and he gulped, "Not in _that_ fight," she got up and started causally, oh so casually walking toward him, each step a slow, deliberate, effortless move.

"...and not in our _bet_."

She smirked, her hazel almost amber eyes sparkling as she moved toward him, stalking him.

Ralph gulped again and started struggling madly.

"Come on guys! You're supposed to be on my side! Let me up!" he glanced over at Nadine who was closing in on him. " _Quickly_!" but the other wolves only snickered.

"It's no use Ralph," Nadine said suddenly very close to him and he nearly jumped out of his fur even while being held down.

With wide eyes he tilted his head back and looked up, right into Nadine's smug face, as he panted hard from his futile efforts to escape.

Nadine leaned down until her muzzle was right next to his ear and spoke, her voice almost rumbling with something like a cross between a growl and a purr as her whiskers _almost_ touched his ear.

"You can struggle all you want Ralph, but in the end I'll _always_ get you."

"Nadine, you can't do this," Ralph said thinking desperately, "We can't bring others into our bet! That's cheating!"

There was a chuckle by his other ear and he jerked in surprise, turning his head quickly only for his eyes to go even wider as he found himself looking right into Nadine's smiling face again.

"There's no rule against it Ralph," she said to more snickers from the other wolves as she toyed with him.

"Not cool guys!" Ralph snapped at them to no effect as the all seemed overly amused watching as Nadine toy with him.

"So Ralph," she said moving her muzzle closer, her dangerous smile growing and Ralph found his eyes suddenly trapped, staring as her smug smile and the intricate patterns of the her exotic fur, the markings unique and chaotically elegant as they perfectly framed her piercing eyes.

"Are you going to accept your inevitable defeat, or…" those eyes got closer, and Ralph found himself breathing hard with his heart beating away like an out of control train as he stared back at her, unable to break his gaze away as she closed in on him, "are you going to struggle?"

"You won't win!" Ralph growled defiantly, "I'll get you for this Nadine! I swear I will! You _won't_ win!"

The fur around her eyes crinkled as she smiled and her eyes sparkling.

She moved in one sudden burst, her head snapping forward so fast he almost didn't see the movement. One second she was looking at him and then one heart stopping moment later her muzzle was next to his and she growled softly into his ear in an utterly smug manner, "I _always_ win. But you can struggle all you want Ralph," her voice gained a teasing edge copying his from yesterday when he was trapped in the cruiser, "because I think it's _cute_." There was a light tap on his nose and Ralph's ears twitched. He tore his eyes away from Nadine, feeling his face flush under his fur, and look in horror at the orange and black paw that had an extended finger touching his nose.

"Boop!" Nadine said with a snicker, the light laugh causing her whiskers to tickle his ear, before she growled softly, seeming completely satisfied, "Your move, _wolf_."

…

It took Ralph a few moments to recover before he pull himself free from the wolves that were now too busy laughing to hold him.

"Haha, guys, real funny," Ralph said disgruntledly, face still feeling warm as he got up but the pile of wolves just laughed harder.

"Oh you should have seen your face! And your _ears_!" Darrel nearly howled in laughter, the other wolves joining in.

"Don't worry," Cindy snickered, "I got pictures, you all want them?" there was an immediate chorus of 'yes's' including one very enthusiastic one from Nadine who was now lazily sitting on the couch. Ralph just groaned as a clatter of tapping claws on phones sounded around the room.

"You can always give up right now, Ralph." Nadine said from the spot on the wrap around sofa that she had claimed, lounging in a languid way that only felines could manage. She looked up and him, her tail twitching to and fro in a happy playful sort of way, and smirked, "You could save yourself from 99 more embarrassing defeats if you do."

Ralph crossed his arms, glaring at her smug face and teasing eyes.

"That wasn't fair." Ralph said and her smile widened.

"This is war Ralph, all's fair." She snickered lightly at him from her comfortably spot sprawled on the sofa.

"War? That's how you want to play this?" Ralph huffed still glaring, and she snickered at him again.

"Fine." He said, his own smirk starting to form as he stared back at her challenging eyes, meeting them and not giving any ground, "Two can play that game, if you can hire an army then I can too."

Smirking more at her suddenly not so smug face Ralph called over his shoulder. "Hey Everyone, Listen Up!" the other wolves all looked over at him, though most still were chuckling and laughing. Ralph looked back to Nadine watching the worry starting to spread across her face, "Same deal everyone; I'll buy your favorites for next game if you all get and hold her!"

Nadine's eyes went wide and her whiskers sagged as there was a new clatter of hoots, excited laughs and hollers of, "Come on! Let's get the tiger!"

Nadine sprang off the couch and bolted before the wolves had a chance to organize, but Ralph had been expecting it and made it to the front door first, blocking her escape.

"Oh, no you don't, Nadine!" Ralph said, now the one snickering, "You're not getting away that easily!"

Nadine skidded to a stop turned, dodged the first wolf that leaped at her and then threw of the second before tearing off in the direction of the kitchen, Ralph and the other wolves hot on her heals.

* * *

Cassandra Wolford's phone rang. She pulled it out of her pocket and opened it up, though she wished she could have just ignored it. Being a pack's alpha though came with responsibility.

"Hello?... oh and how are you doing Mrs. Howlerson?... au-huh, not so well then… Really? Lots of noise you say? They can't be that loud, they're just throwing a small party for the game… oh… howling and roaring like an out of control frat party?... okay, I'll give them a call to see what's going on… sure thing, talk to you later."

Her husband leaned over from where he was sitting next to her on their couch and placed an arm around her, nuzzling a bit and saying, "That didn't sound good. The boys up to something again, and irritating that old biddy?"

She pushed his muzzle back, stifling a giggle, "Don't you start that right now! The games just about to begin and if you keep that up we're going to miss it!"

He leaned back smiling but kept his arm around her shoulder, "So what are the hooligan squad doing this time?"

"Same as always probably," she said snuggling against him a bit, as she dialed a different number, this time putting the phone on speaker.

It took longer than she expected for the phone to be answered, but finally the line clicked and they heard Bill's panting voice answer.

"Hey, ah… What's up?" There was a crash from the background as someone else snickered and yelled, "Mick! Get her legs, slow her down so me and Ralph can grab her!" which was followed by a defiant roaring voice, she recognized as Ralph's police partner, bellowing, "It'll take more than just you three to get me!"

This was followed by a playful howl before there was a loud crash and sounds of a very energetic scuffle.

The sounds coming through the phone suddenly became a bit muted as if the receiver was being covered with a paw and they heard Bill shouting, "Don't Break the Sofa too!" to which they heard a giggling reply of "Too Late!" and then a distressed roar and a triumphant shout from Ralph, "Ha! Boop! Take that Nadine, Think you can-" His voice cut off in a sudden yip, and there was more crashing followed by a triumph roared shout of "BOOP!"

"Um… can I call you back in a bit?" Bill said quickly, now snickering nearly hysterically as there was an outraged scream from Ralph of, "THAT'S CHEATING!" followed by an eruption of howled laughs.

Cassandra whacked her husband lightly as he started to snicker, listening to the younger wolves brawl, it wouldn't do to let them know that their antics amused them. They were supposed to be a calming force for the other wolves, not egging them on.

Snicker silenced (or at least muffled behinds paws), she said back into the phone, "Just tell everybody to quiet it down, you all are annoying cranky old Mrs. Howlerson again."

There an angry shout of, "STOP LAUGHING AND GET HER!" followed by more scuffling, laughing and another roar, a loud _thump_ and more scuffling.

"Right, will do, gotta go!" Bill said ending the call.

Cassandra looked at the phone and shook her head as her husband tried to hold back his snickers, before finally whispering to her, "Think they caught a tiger by the tail?" and broke out into laughter.

She tried not to laugh and failed.

…

Once Cassandra had her laughter mostly under control, she shook her head again, though she was still grinning, "You'd have thought that tiger had grown up with them, the way she gets along with Ralph and the others."

"Hummm…" he mumbled contemplatively, as he leaned close against her and she snuggled back, getting comfortable as the commercials before the kick off of the game finally ended, "Ralph does spend an _awful_ lot of time with her, always invites her over whenever it's just him and the younger wolves too. Think there might be more going on there between them?"

"Could be," she replied, comfortable now, "I can't remember the last time Ralph talked of a different girl and that last date a year ago we got him to go on with the wolf from the Silverclaws's pack was a total disaster."

"You think she might have been the reason?" he asked.

She took a moment to contemplate that, "Well… he's always hanging out with her," she ticked of a claw, "all he talks about is what they've done together at work," she ticked off another, "he hasn't been on a date we haven't forced him into since before he went to the academy," she ticked of a third, " _and_ he's started introducing her to others in the pack." She gestured her now open paw, "Already has all of the other young wolves accepting her too. He obviously likes her, and if she really _likes_ him, as it appears he does, then I think it's about time we start doing our job."

"Some in the pack are going to throw a fit." He said sounding a bit dubious, "I mean who has ever heard of a _feline_ in a wolf pack?"

"Well, _this is_ Zootopia," she snickered, "It's not like their traditional enemies like that fox and bunny officers they work with."

Her husband gave an amused grunt, and muttered, "Right, more like mortal enemies being a feline and a canid." She flicked his ear and he chuckled again before sighing, "Okay, but how do we go about talking to her pack or… pride?"

"Pretty sure prides are with lions not tigers," Cassandra replied, frowning, "I don't think tigers have groups."

"What's the protocol here then?" he asked deferring to her for this, "Cindy, might be an arctic wolf but she's still a wolf. We were able to talk to their pack alphas about it and make sure there wouldn't be any problems for them. There really isn't that much of a difference between Arctic wolves and Timber wolves anyway, well not compared to a _tiger_ at least."

"Hummm…" she gave that some thought watching the game as the two team captains went to the center of the field with the referee for the coin flip, "We should probably try talking to her parents then. Maybe see if we can get Ralph to invite her and her family over for something."

He grunted again, " _That's_ not going to be easy."

"I'm sure we can find an excuse," She said waving a paw dismissively, "All we need to do is get them here, then we can pull them aside and have a serious conversation about our cub's futures away from their sensitive ears. It's our job as the pack leaders to make sure that these sorts of things go smoothly after all. Can you imagine what would happen if we just let them stumble through this on their own? It would be complete chaos!" she waved her paw again exaggeratingly, "Young mammals do the _stupidest_ things when they start falling in love."

"Like we did?" He snickered and she, blushing, poked him hard to get him to behave. He grabbed her paw but settled down, interlocking his fingers with hers, before asking, "Are you just worried that he might leave the pack with her?"

She gave a disdainful huff, "That's _not_ going to happen." She said steely determination in her voice, "I'll drag that tiger kicking and screaming into this pack if that's what it takes."

"Hummm…" he rumbled in a low growl smiling as he held her tighter, "I don't doubt you would."

* * *

"STOP LAUGHING AND GET HER!" Ralph shouted gesticulating wildly with his free paw at Nadine as he lay face down on the floor. He only had one free paw because his other was cuffed to his foot. He'd messed up and let his guard down thinking he'd won.

He should have known better. In a one on one fight, Nadine held the advantage, though he could take her… most of the time (sometimes...after she'd already sparred several times with others). Doing so though required all of his skill and a touch of luck since Nadine was significantly stronger than him, being at least a third bigger than he was; he had to use body position and leverage to his advantage to lock her limbs at angles that would mitigate her sheer strength if he wanted to pin her.

With his other packmates behind him to help, he'd had a much easier time getting her… once they'd managed to corner her (They'd pretty thoroughly trashed the kitchen and part of the living room doing so). She'd given quite the slippery chase flinging off wolves left and right before they could bring her down as she sprinted and dodged around the house using everything she could to keep them from surrounding her and simply dog piling her like they'd done to him.

Ralph had caught her though when she'd tried changing course, seeing two of the other wolves heading her off. He'd had the perfect opportunity and tackled her as she tried to leap over the sofa and out of danger. He'd brought her down in a tumbling heap rolling off the sofa (and breaking the sofas end arm in the process) to pin her on the ground with the other wolves jumped in to help hold her.

He'd gotten in a solid boop there but he'd forgotten that as good brawlers as his pack mates might be, they didn't have any real training like him and Nadine and consequently hadn't pinned her properly. His partner had used that and her pure crazy strength to break free in an quick movement, catching him by surprise. Throwing the two other wolves off she'd rolled him and before he could counter had pulled out her pawcuffs (he knew he should have remembered that she _always_ carried those too) and cuffed his left paw to his right foot before delivering her own boop as he lay effectively subdued on the floor.

The other wolves had found his plight extremely amusing, much to his irritation, which was why he was angrily shouting at them to shut up and get her.

Nadine though had spent too much time cuffing and booping him and had let herself get surrounded. Harold came in from one side and got tossed bodily into the sofa nearly flipping it for his effort but Cindy tackled Nadine's left leg from the other side, sending the tiger crashing to the ground, where she barely managed to roll out of the way as two more wolves tried piling on to keep her down. Bill though had finally gotten back into the fight and jumped on Nadine's remaining free leg preventing her from getting back up as the other wolves closed in.

Ralph, still from his position face down on the floor, smirked gloatingly at her as she tried desperately to escape as more wolves dog piled her. She'd fought like a wildcat but it was over, he could see the realization hit her as she lay now trapped just a few feet in front of him. And he still had one paw free to boop her with.

Still smirking, Ralph couldn't help taunting her like she had earlier, "You're _cute_ when you struggle Nadine, but you're still going to get booped again!" he snickered shaking his finger in front of her like she was a naughty child, "You lose _tiger_."

Her eyes narrowed dangerously and Ralph's smirk slipped.

With a tremendous roar, Nadine managed to free one paw and shot it forward to grabbing his free arm and yanked him to her until his nose was right in front of her muzzle.

"Freeze or the Wolf gets Booped!" Nadine bellowed placing her muzzle right above his nose threateningly. The others stopped, though she was nearly buried under them and looked at Ralph who was staring wide eyed, at Nadine's muzzle, her lips pulled back to show her impressive teeth.

"Tell them to get off me or I Boop you Ralph." She said commandingly, dipping her muzzle and snapping her teeth lightly just in front of his nose, clearly threatening to nip him.

"Okay, okay!" Ralph said quickly, eyes focused on her teeth, "Do as the tiger says guys!"

The other wolves slowly extracted themselves from the pile on Nadine's back and legs and backed up, snickering again.

Nadine's lips curved back into a very toothy smile. She brought her other, now free arm around and carefully got up, picking him up too. Holding him like a hostage with one paw hovering right in front of his nose threateningly, Nadine slowly backed over to the sofa (dragging him in a sort of hopping fashion as his one leg still being cuffed to his paw) before sitting near the end they'd hadn't broken. He felt her other paw shuffle around behind him and then his leg came free of the cuff. This though was only a minor improvement because she quickly grabbed his free arm, pulling it around behind him and cuffed it.

"Okay this is how it's going to go," Nadine said smugly pulling Ralph back so that he flopped down sitting on her lap, one paw still hovering dangerously close to his nose as the other wrapped around his waist pulling his back against her and making sure he couldn't do anything like try rolling away, "If Ralph tries anything, I boop him." She made a tapping motion with her paw in front of his nose, "If you all try anything, I boop him." She gestured again, "And if you all don't sit down, not only will I boop him, but we'll miss the start of the game."

All the heads swiveled around to the TV just in time to see the coin toss before there was a slew of curses and scrambling to get the best seats.

Nadine leaned down, her whiskers tickling his ear again and whispered smugly, "I win again Ralph."

He let out a disgruntled huff, "You're not going to keep me here like this throughout the game, are you?" but Nadine just chuckled in his ear.

"Really? Let you go so that you can have a second try ganging up to boop me? Not a _Chance,_ Ralph." She settled back against the couch, pulling him along with her, "Better get comfortable, you're my insurance right now that your packmates don't jump me so you can boop me again, so I'm not letting you go before the game is over."

He grumbled and squirmed a bit but without free use of his paws and Nadine's arm firmly around him he was well and truly stuck. Nadine only chortled in a rumbly purring sort of way at his futile struggles as she settled into a comfortable position using his shoulder as a chin rest, her eyes now watching the TV and game.

Ralph frowned at her, even though he had to admit that, captive hostage or not, the position he found himself in, half sitting on the couch, half on Nadine's lap and leaning back up against her as she held him, preventing him from escaping, was… surprisingly comfortable.

"You're enjoying having me trapped here too much, aren't you?" Ralph said accusingly, and felt the vibration from her purring chuckle as she replied, her chin moving against his shoulder.

"Oh, absolutely. Officer Ralph Wolford being held captive by fear of a boop; I'll be able to hold this over you at the precinct for _years_." she snickered, "Perfect blackmail; just think of what Bogo would say if he found out you got yourself taken hostage by one wee little kitty when you had a whole pack backing you up!"

Ralph huffed again. He knew exactly what Bogo would probably do, he'd make him spend his free time doing refresher training.

"You now I'm going to get you back, right?" he said, finally giving up on trying to find an immediate escape and resigning himself to his furry black and orange prison. At least it was a warm comfortable prison and they were showing the game too.

"I know you're going to _try_ Ralph," she said smiling, the motion causing her whiskers to tickle his cheek, "not that you're going to succeed."

"You just got lucky this time Nadine, just like your team," he gestured with his muzzle to the TV where the Prowlers had won the coin toss. One of the other wolves had turned up the volume as all the wolves now sprawled on the rest of the sofa and floor, or in one case a bean bag that someone had dragged over.

"Hummm… you think so?" Nadine said her chest vibrating against him with a low purring chuckle, "Guess we'll just have to keep watching so you can see why skill is going to give _them_ the game and _me_ our bet."

Ralph glanced over at Nadine's head, comfortably resting on his shoulder and smirked, "You're going to be eating your words _tiger_ , but don't worry I'll be there to hand you tissues as you're crying your eyes out after your team loses spectacularly to mine."

Nadine gave another throaty vibrating chuckle, still smiling and Ralph felt his tail start thumping lightly. He settled back against her comfortable form turning his attention to the game, his tail thumping just a bit more as he thought of different ways he would get his partner back and boop her for this. Nadine might have won this round but this bet was only just beginning and he was still ahead.

The game got off to a good start, with a quick turnover as the Pack gained control of the ball to ruckus cheers from the wolves and a groan from Nadine; and Ralph's tail continued to thump on the sofa next to where he sat with Nadine, still captive but only for the moment. He knew were Nadine liked to keep her keys to the paw cuffs after all; he just had to wait for her to get distracted enough by the game to not notice him stealing them. She only thought she had him captive and she'd put her nose right there on his shoulder!

Ralph grinned as the ball turned over again, this time to groans coming from the wolves and a triumphant hoot from Nadine.

**Boop Count**

**Ralph: 4**

**Nadine: 2**

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For anyone not familiar with the reference, Chick-fil-A is a fairly popular restaurant chain in the U.S. with an funny sense of advertising humor. If you still don't get whats so funny about how they fit perfectly into Zootopia, just google them, it should be apparent :)
> 
> Also a general Thank you to those who have been submitting Boop ideas. There have been some really good ones *smirk* and they WILL be used! We've got a lot of story to tell yet so keep those ideas coming!
> 
> Pirate Warning: Be Warned all ye salty scurvy shippers, the WildeHopps pirates claim full rights to credit the originators of ideas when used, in good old pirate fashion. Don't expect just a 'Idea By: insert name' from us, that's just boring. Disagree? Well then, you can walk the plank!


	6. Chapter 6 - Game Day: Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Hummm... okay lets try this (puts down book labeled Hypnotism 101). Now focus on this watch I'm swinging back and forth, back and forth. *tick-tock* You are getting sleepy... *tick-tock* You are a WildeHopps fan... *tick-tock* That's right, You are a WolfEyer fan too... *tick-tock* You are not going to sue this grinch for stealing Disney's characters...
> 
> Approved and Edited by: Cimar of Turalis WildeHopps. (Admiral Cimar's Parrots: *Squawk* "WildeHopps Forever! WildeHopss Forever" *Squawk* "Wolfeyer too! Wolfeyer too!" *Squawk* "Sue the grinch! Sue the grinch!")

 

And a huge special thanks to **Ziegelzeig** & **DrummerMax64** for a truly Epicly 'Daaaaawwwwwwww' picture of 'WolfEyer'! And another thanks to **Otakurec37** for the colored version of the picture. Check it all out on Deviantart!

For all you adventures out there on FanFiction you can either try reconstruction the links below or if you're feeling a bit lazy simply google 'WolfEyer Deviantart'

**ziegelzeig dot deviantart dot com /art/WolfEyer-675285697   (Ao3): http://ziegelzeig.deviantart.com/art/WolfEyer-675285697**

**otakurec37 dot deviantart dot com /art/Wolfeyer-Colorized-676310060    (Ao3): http://otakurec37.deviantart.com/art/Wolfeyer-Colorized-676310060**

* * *

 

Chapter 6 – Game Day: Part 2

 

"See, what did I tell you, Ralph?" Nadine said smugly, leaning down to the wolf resting against her and almost purred in delight at his frustrated expression.

"The first half's not over!" Ralph said stubbornly, eye's glued to the TV with such an intent focus even his fluffy tail had stilled, "There's still fifty seconds left."

Nadine had a moment of indecision as she thought about how to tease him next. With a mental shrug though, she decided not to worry about it.

_They're all wolves anyway, this level of contact is normal for them, being sociable pack mammals and all. And they won't see anything unusual or inappropriate about me purring… just a bit._

Mental debate resolved, Nadine grinned hugely and moved her head right over to Ralph's ear. With a slight thrill, she let out the full throaty purr she'd be holding back on.

"50 seconds or 50 minutes, it won't make a difference," Nadine said with a deep thrum in her voice while she watched Ralph's startled reaction in delight, "The Prowlers are ahead already and we'll only stretch that lead in the next half too. You should just give up now Ralph so we can get you a proper sized Prowlers jersey."

Nadine almost laughed watching her partner. He'd twitched at the sudden closeness and deep purr and his ears, almost flat back as he watched the game intently, had popped up so fast they'd almost flown off his head. But the best part had been his tail. She loved to tease Ralph about his seemingly inability to control his tail and her little surprise had shattered his concertation, sending it twitching sporadically as he tried to formulate some sort of response.

Nadine snickered as his head snapped around to look at her, his mouth open and then shutting. It wasn't like he hadn't heard her purr before but it wasn't something she did often in front of others, especially other felines, so she'd caught him completely off guard purring like that right in his ear.

There was a slight warming in her face but she ignored it. She was hanging out with Ralph right now and wolves didn't have the same social restrictions that cats did. Tradition bound or not they were surprisingly sociable and gregarious with each other. So what did it matter if she let herself loosen up a bit around him and his pack? She rather enjoyed the feeling of freedom it gave her and slight embarrassment or not, she felt perfectly fine being this intimate… Nadine flushed just a bit more; No, that was the wrong word, she decided, she felt perfectly fine being this _open_ around her partner.

Shelving all her thoughts and determined to enjoy the moment while not overthinking it, Nadine capitalized on Ralph's temporary startled state.

"What did you say?" she said as he opened his mouth again, forestalling a response as she deepened the purr just a bit more, "Did I just hear you say you give up?"

His perked ears twitched and flattened as his tail went stiff.

"Never!" he finally got out.

"I'm pretty sure you said you'd given up," Nadine smiled gleefully at him, "There's no shame in doing so. You and your team don't have a chance at winning anyway, why just look at the score right now with only seconds left and-" Nadine was cut off as the room exploded in noise.

"SCOOORREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" trumpeted the elephant announcer from the television as all the wolves went wild, shouting and howling, their voices joining in with the faint howls that could be heard from up and down the street.

" _What_?!" Nadine shrieked, her purr coming to a screeching halt as she wiped her head around to the TV where they were showing a replay of the coyote on the Pack's team kicking a corner goal shot right as the half's time ran out.

Ralph was just about the only wolf that hadn't joined in on the howl as he was too busy laughing at her.

"What was that you were saying?" he hooted in delight, bumping her chin with his nose as his paws were still cuffed loosely, "Huh, what was that? I didn't quite hear you Nadine! Would you say that again? Something about my chances of winning being as good as the Pack's chances of scoring?" he bumped her chin again as she stared in disbelief as the replay showed again, the soccer ball sailing into the goal just a hairsbreadth away from the paws of the goalkeeper reaching to stop it.

"Where'd your pretty little purr go, _kitty_?" Ralph snickered and her whiskers twitched as his chin nudged her again.

"Oh, Shut it _wolf_!" Nadine snapped, thumping the top of his muzzle with her chin, her paws being occupied making sure he didn't try and make a break for it. The halftime break would be a perfect opportunity for him to try and get some booping revenge on her and she wasn't going to give him the chance. Not while he could call in reinforcements to help him. Reinforcements that she didn't have anything to bribe with right at the moment.

Ralph only laughed more as his tail thumped away in mirth but he at least stopped poking her.

She huffed but the wolves finally started to calm down as the channel finally cut to commercials.

"You sure _you_ don't want to give up, Nadine?" Ralph asked now the one sounding smug, "You could save face by ceding our bet and joining the winning team before we utterly embarrass the Prowlers."

"Not on your life Ralph!" Nadine snapped, this time her response more of a growl than a purr. "You all have only just tied the game and if you've forgotten," she tightened her grip on him just a bit, pulling him close against her and raising a paw to tap his muzzle, emphasis her point, " _I'm_ the one that has _you_ trapped right now!"

* * *

Cindy got up from her spot with most of the other wolves that were sprawled over the sofa and floor in small groups and headed toward the kitchen, trailing a bit so she wouldn't have to deal with the mad scramble to get her part of the lunch they traded for as payment for helping the tiger.

A chicken lunch in exchange for a bit of fun rough housing around had certainly been a win-win deal. She looked back over at the tigress still with a tight grip on her hostage as they argued back and forth, not that Ralph seemed to mind his current position much. Or really at all. Actually, judging by how his tail was wagging he was rather enjoying himself. And while Cindy wasn't the best judge of tiger mannerisms the way the _her_ tail was snapping playfully seemed to indicate that despite the scowl on her face, she was enjoying herself too. And then there was the way she was holding him in her lap.

_Hummm… I didn't think tiger's were normally that sociable._

She was still getting used to this pack being a relative newcomer to the social circle, much like the tiger, but from what she could remember the two of them always did seem to be hanging out together. There wasn't necessarily anything odd about it,

 _Except for the fact that she's a_ _ **tiger**_! Her mind added but she just shrugged. They seemed just as close as any two wolves that were close friends and pack mates.

 _But she's not, well… not a pack mate… officially at least, not least because she's_ _ **not**_ _a wolf._

The thought rolled through her mind again, Cindy had had a few feline friends in school, and she never remembered them being comfortable with that level of physical contact, well not with their normal friends, their boyfriends had been a completely different matter.

Ralph said something to the tigress grinning widely, his tail thumping away on her leg and the tigress let out a snarl, eyes narrowed with her muzzle and teeth bared just inches away from Ralph. And he only grinned more, tail thumping even harder.

The tigress gave the tail whacking rhythmically against her leg a glare. That having no effect she slammedg a paw down on it to stop its movement (though the tip still wagged back and forth) before snarling something else back at Ralph to which he only shrugged with a sheepish grin.

Another glare at his tail which had slowed, though it still wagged a bit and she let it go, watching it like she was ready to pounce on it if it dared to thwack her again. Seeming satisfied at its now slower wag speed, she turned back to face Ralph and their back and forth bicker started up again, as they shot smirks and grins and scowls back and forth.

 _Gods, there like an old married couple_ , she couldn't help thinking and snickered as the vague feeling she'd been having started to form into a full blown suspicion. One that only solidified as she watched as the tigress, with her attention fully engaged on the Ralph and their argument, didn't even seem to notice that her tail had curled around Ralph's.

* * *

"You had the number 2 with extra toppings right?" Bill asked and handed over a sandwich box to Cindy as she nodded. He grinned, grabbing the last box out of the bag and a drink before heading back over to the living room, only to stop, noticing that Cindy hadn't gone back over to eat with Darrel.

"What's up?" he asked moving over to her and she nodded at the far end of the sofa.

"Is there something going on between Ralph and Nadine?" she asked.

"Ya, a bet. Remember? That's why she wanted our help." He said and grinned as he dodged her attempt to flick his ear for his snide remark.

"No _doofus_ , I mean is there _**something**_ going on between them?" she said with heavy emphasis.

Bill almost tripped, "Say _what_?"

She rolled her eyes, "Oh come on Bill, you're Ralph's brother and you live with him. You out of anyone should know if he's interested in anyone."

Bill blinked considering the odd idea before shaking his head, "Not that I know of; he certainly hasn't said anything, I mean I tease him all the time about it because, come on, his best friend is a freakin _tiger_!" He snickered and used his claw to pop the top of the soda he'd picked up.

"Wait, I thought you were his best friend?" Cindy asked, her brow furrowing a bit.

"I'm his _brother_ ," Bill said, smirking and sipped his drink, before saying in a humorous tone, "His _best_ brother, his best _buddy_ , his wingman, the guy that drives him nuts, eggs him on and then drags his tail out of trouble. I'm insulted you'd think I'd lower myself to the position of just 'best friend'!"

That got him another eye roll, "Okay, whatever. But what about your 'B.B.F .' " she made sarcastic air quotes, "and his B.F.F.? Is she maybe… _a bit more_ to him than just his best friend forever?" she asked giving him a pointed look and then an even more pointed one back over at Ralph, who was sticking his tongue out at Nadine and making raspberry noises.

Bill laughed before answering, because Nadine looked like Ralph had just tied her whiskers in a knot.

"I doubt it, as far as I've seen, they're always like that. They apparently really bonded at the academy, sort of had a two wolf pack going there… er, wolf and tiger pack? Pride?" he scratched the back of his head before shrugging and continuing, "Whatever you'd call it, she's pretty much been like a pack mate to him since then. We've just been seeing her a lot more lately since I told him last year to forget about what all the complainers like that old crow that lives next to us where saying about his 'unusual' best friend."

"So, you're saying _that's_ normal?" she asked disbelievingly, pointing at them.

Nadine had one paw holding Ralph's hugely grinning muzzle shut while the other gestured dangerously at him while she snarled something.

Bill shrugged. "She's acting like any other she-wolf packmate. What's so strange about some ear flicks or nudges and pokes? They act like anyone other two close pack mates, all just normal pack behavior. Why do you think there's something more there?"

"Well first she's a _tigress_ not a she-wolf," Cindy said, "I kind of doubt 'normal pack behavior' is normal for a tiger."

That stopped Bill dead for a second. Sure, it was a little odd that Nadine got along so well with Ralph, felines and canines didn't really have the best track record of getting along, but he'd never thought why. Then again she got along with all of them pretty well. Maybe it just meant that she was just a little different.

He shook his head after considering it for a moment, "I'm not buying it. It might be a little strange but this is Zootopia and we don't live in the stone age anymore; we all have friends that aren't wolves, Nadine's just a really close friend of his. And anyway, she rough houses with all of us, not just with Ralph."

Bill gave Cindy a closer look. She seemed pretty stuck on this idea.

"What makes you think there's something more to it?" he narrowed his eyes as she smirked, then they widened and he whispered, "You didn't… well…" he glanced over at the two of them and tapped his nose, "catch any _hints_ that something else was going on, did you?" It was considered fairly rude to use their better sense of smell to ferret out secrets from others through scent clues but it was also something that was just part of being a wolf.

Cindy shrugged noncommittally, "Not really… we're all excited and pumped up for the game anyway; so I'm not sure."

"What then? This is all a guess? Famous female intuition?" Bill asked, looking back over at his brother. Now though, he couldn't help but wonder, Ralph had always got along well with Nadine but they'd _had_ seemed to only be getting closer, especially over the last year… and they spend a _lot_ of time together, though they _were_ work partners after all, so was it really that unusually?

Cindy only grinned at his doubting look though, "What, our female intuition isn't enough for you?"

"No, not really. Ralph would have said something; In fact he couldn't shut up about ever crush he had when we were growing up. He'd fall for a she-wolf one week and then be chasing another the next and talking about it non-stop. Total tail chaser." He answered and then yelped as she flicked his ear.

"From the stories Darrel has told me, you were just as bad _and_ still are!" Cindy said in a stern scolding tone, which only made him grin. She huffed and continued, "And you should listen more to us girls, we're _always_ the first ones to know about these things, I swear all you males can be blind as bats!" she poked him, " _And_ there's _something_ going on between them, and I don't mean just some momentary intrigue either like when you go chasing after a some girl! At the very least _she_ certainly has some feelings for _him_."

"I thought you said you didn't smell anything?" Bill said frowning, and she rolled her eyes.

"I didn't…" she replied quickly, "Well… not for sure anyway, but as I said before _that's_ not normal 'just friends' behavior." She pointed back at the two who were now almost nose to nose in a glaring contest with their ears pinned back, not saying a word.

"Still don't see how that's odd." Bill said trying to figure out what she was talking about. They were acting just like any other pack mates, okay… close packmates, like siblings in a way.

"Ughhh," Cindy said in disgust, before leaning over and rapping her knuckles on his head, " _Look at their_ _ **tails**_!"

Ralph rubbing the spot and shot her a short glare before looking over at Ralph and Nadine who were both still as statues, continuing their silent glaring contest.

"I don't-" Bill stopped talking abruptly, "Well… I've never seen that before…"

Ralph tail was lying motionless besides where the two of them sat, not so much as flickering in the slightest, with Nadine's tail partially twined around it.

Cindy snickered, "Ya, feline tails are _way_ more flexible than ours," she said and smirked, "I knew a Siberian tiger in highschool and she was always doing that… with her _boyfriend_."

* * *

Nadine glared, her body absolutely still as Ralph glared back, his posture matching hers and neither willing to back down.

She didn't care how long it took, she'd stay here all day and all night if that's what it took to beat Ralph at this little challenge he'd started. She glared hard right back into his eyes, his unblinking eyes, like two pools of molten gold with a fire reflecting her own. Ralph might be a goof most of the time but he had a deep hidden reserve of strength, a strength that she could always see through his eyes. His beautiful eyes…

The memory of those same gold flecked eyes from her dream last night surfaced, unbidden, into her mind followed by an ephemerally warm feeling.

One of her whiskers twitched and she mentally cursed, forcefully stuffing and locking that image away deep in the farthest corners of her mind as Ralph's eyes noticed her small misstep.

 _No! No! NO! He's NOT going to beat me!_ , Nadine thought and doubled down on her glare as the faintest curve of a smirking grin started forming in the corner of Ralph's muzzle.

Nadine was just regaining her equilibrium in their dual when, to her horror, a rumbling gurgling growl split the silence between them and her eyes went wide.

"Ha!" Ralph shouted victoriously, the grin he was holding back breaking across his face, "So you admit I'm right! That shot was _not_ a fluke!"

"That's not fair! That was my stomach, not me!" Nadine snarled, her ears splaying back as her voice came out as more of a whine.

"Nope." Ralph said shaking his head once before looking right back at her grinning so much his teeth were showing just a bit. "You lost Nadine, and you know it." he said leaning in toward her with those eyes that seemed to glint with a mischievous delight. Her ears went flat against her skull and she could feel herself leaning back into the sofa as Ralph pressed her.

"Admit it Nadine," he said as she tried to hold up under his gaze… and failed.

"Fine…" she mumbled irately as she looked down away from those eyes, "That shot wasn't a fluke…" She looked back up as Ralph throw back his head and let out a victorious howl.

"Not that a sneak play is going to work a second time." She added, though it didn't diminish Ralph's delight in the slightest as he looked back at her, eyes sparkling happily.

Another warm feeling seemed to start in her chest at that look and Nadine huffed before grabbing him and pulling him back around so that his back was to her preventing him from starting another staring contest. She'd need at least a few minutes to mentally recoup after having lost that stare down before she'd be ready to try that again, even if his victory there had been a total fluke.

Her stomach chose that moment to give another grumbling growl and Ralph almost giggled as her stomach rumbled against him.

"Oh shut up," She muttered without much energy before looking around and noticing that Darrel, Cindy and Bill were having some sort of secret-ish conversation by the kitchen door. Her hold on Ralph tightened a bit more as she suddenly had the suspicion that they were conspiring about ways to free her hostage. There were too many grins and sly looks in their direction for it to be just some harmless conversation.

Nadine let out another huff at their machinations and resolved to herself that they would _not_ get Ralph away from her. She readied a paw to boop Ralph just in case they tried anything.

Nothing happened though, except for a growl from her stomach which started Ralph laughing, only for his stomach to growl even louder.

"You," Nadine said in a delighted snicker, "need to work a little more on your roaring, that one sounding like you're a 5 year old cub."

"That's rich, coming from the tiger with the _howling_ stomach," Ralph shot back as Nadine started to giggle.

"Oh Ralph," Nadine sighed, adopting an overly compassionate tone as if she was talking to a little kit and tried not to giggle, "It wasn't _that_ bad for your first roar, Why you know you can always ask a big tiger like me to help you! Here, just remember to use your diaphragm, that's how all the _big_ tigers roar so loud." She tapped his stomach which let out another loud growl.

"See!" Nadine said with a small delighted clap, "You're already doing better! You just keep practicing like that and one day you'll be able to roar just like me!"

"Har Har, very funny Nadine," Ralph flatly, before grinning and poking her belly with his cuffed paws, "Now, why don't uncuff me so that I get us some food. It'll be really hard to watch the second half of the game if we can't hear the TV over the sound of our stomachs."

"Uh-huh, I bet you'd try to bring me a 'boop sandwich' if I let you go," Nadine said sarcastically, before rolling her eyes, "I'm not _that_ gullible Ralph."

"Hey, can't blame a wolf for trying." he said with a grin.

"And what makes you think I can't?" she replied, before patting his head smugly, "But if that's the best you've got I guess It's not worth the trouble."

Nadine turned back over to where the three wolves were still holding their not-so-secret rescue planning session by the kitchen door.

"Hey, Bill!" she called over, "I know you three are trying to figure out how to rescue Ralph from me, but since that isn't going to happen why don't you be a dear and grab my food from the kitchen for me?" she grinned and raised a paw making a tapping motion, "You wouldn't want him to get booped now would you?"

Bill gave a quick glance to the other two wolves before looking at Ralph and grinning.

"Sure thing," he said and disappeared into the kitchen for a moment before heading over to them with the food and some drinks from the cooler.

Nadine brought her paw back up close to Ralph's nose and he stilled against her as his eyes tracked her finger warily.

"Careful now Bill," Nadine warned as he approached and waggled her finger, "Any funny business and I boop him!"

Bill looked at Ralph and snickered before moving with exaggerated slowness carefully placing the food and drinks on the coffee table by the side of the sofa before backing up with both paws in the air.

The whole scene was so comical that Nadine had a hard time holding a straight face, though most of the other wolves in the room didn't seem to have that issue and broke out into raucous laughter.

Nadine smirked and grabbed the two sandwich boxes, before opening one up and taking a large bite out of the chicken sandwich inside, almost purring at the taste hit her tongue.

Ralph gave the sandwiches a baleful look before sighing and turning to Bill,

"Hey, you mind grabbing me some food too? What did you get out of the group fund for today anyway?"

"Ummm… actually," Bill started to say scratching the back of his neck in a rather sheepish manner, "I didn't really get much because of our deal with Nadine," he gave Ralph an apologetic smile, "Sorry bro, We got some chips and other snacks if that can hold you over."

Nadine considered waiting a little longer as she watched Ralph's expression with some amusement as it shifted through surprise, to a look of 'You dope!' but gave in as it started to settle into a forlorn expression as Bill turned back to the kitchen.

"Don't worry about that Bill," she called over, "I picked up an extra sandwich for Ralph. Thought it would be unfair for us all to get to eat chicken while he didn't."

She opened up the second box, grinning at Ralph's shocked expression.

"I'm not _that_ mean Ralph," she said snickering, "Anyway I thought you'd need a pick-me-up after your crushing setback in our bet when I handed your tail to you."

"Um… Nadine, I… ah…" Ralph stammered, looking at the sandwich box with a conflicted, almost embarrassed expression. He swallowed and glanced away from the food, looking miserable as his ears drooped.

"I, ah… I can't Nadine…" he finally got out, "That's your food, I can't take that from you."

Nadine rolled her eyes in exasperation. She'd almost forgotten about wolves and their peculiarities about food and who's it was and she certainly hadn't been thinking about it when she'd put the extra two sandwiches in the order.

The whole thing was one of those complicated wolf tradition things with all sorts of complex rules that she'd never really gotten, not that Ralph had really tried to explain it. Some things just didn't bother him while others did. Usually they both pitched in for the cost of lunch when on patrol, but Ralph could get all reserved if she tried to pay or get him something, though oddly contrary to that, if she did something like pick up donuts for everyone at the precinct he'd eat those without a fuss. The whole thing baffled her.

"We're not going to have this fuss again are we?" Nadine asked Ralph, before gesturing around the room which had gone oddly quiet as all the other wolves stopped to watch them, "We're _all_ eating the food I picked up Ralph, you can eat it too."

"Nadine," he nearly pleaded, " _they_ had a deal, a trade, with you for the that food, _I_ didn't. And that," Ralph nodded gloomily at the sandwich, "wasn't even part of the deal. It's _yours_."

Ralphs stomach chose just that moment to give its loudest growl yet, and Nadine's ear flicked in irritation.

"Fine." She snapped a bit sharply, "whatever. The sandwich is mine. And if it's mine, then I can say it's yours. It's not fair that we all get to have this kind of treat but _you_ don't. Anyway that was a _damned_ expensive sandwich and it had better get eaten."

"Exactly Nadine. That's only more reason I can't-" Ralph's dejected sounding rejection came to an end as Nadine picked up the sandwich and shoved it into his open mouth.

There room went completely silent as Ralph's jaws closed in a reflexive action and Nadine watched in satisfaction as his eyes went a little wide at that taste of the real chicken. She had a similar reaction every time she took a first bite of a real meat meal. As good as imitation bug-meat could be made, it simply could never match the real thing. Not even seafood could match chicken.

Nadine grinned at her shocked partner, "The smell is always enough to make me drool but it's that first bite that's always the best, isn't it?" she asked sweetly and then watched as multiple emotions seemed to wage a quick war across his face, but it only lasted a second before the temptation won out and Ralph's jaws finished closing, biting off a piece.

"See, that wasn't painful at all," Nadine said as Ralph chewed slowly, looking rather embarrassed.

He finally swallowed then looked at her almost shyly.

"Nadine, I should't-"

She shoved the sandhich back in before he could continue.

"Yes you _should_ , Ralph," she said, "I'm not going to let you sit around here, _hungry_ , while we all eat just because of some silly pack tradition that doesn't even apply to me. _And_ …" she added seeing him hesitate from taking the bite, "If you won't eat then I won't either."

Ralph looked conflicted for another moment before his shoulders slumped slightly as the resistance and tension in them broke and he finished taking the second bite.

Nadine smiled happily and took a bite out of her own sandwich enjoying the flavor of the perfectly cooked chicken as Ralph chewed. She'd considered shifting the cuffs on him so that he could eat but decided against it, as he might try to pull something sneaky and instead lifted his sandwich up for him to take another bite. He hesitated, looking at her for a second and the inside of his ears turned a brighter pink before he took another bite without her prodding.

She spent the next minute happily destroying her sandwich one large bite at a time and holding Ralphs up for him to eat. After another minute juggling the rest of the food and drinks she finished by downing her can of soda. Giving a loud sigh at the good meal she stretched a bit in place before lounging back on the couch, feeling sated and comfortable.

Ralph's tail twitched as if he was getting ready to move and she wrapped an arm around him, pulling him back to her.

"Uh-un, you're not going anywhere Ralph." she said, using his shoulder as a chin rest so that she could watch the tv while sprawled lazily along the end of the sofa. "I'm comfortable now and your shenanigans can wait until after the gameeee," She yawned widely stretching out the last word before snapping her muzzle back as her eyes went half lidded, watching as the commercial break came to an end and the teams headed back out onto the field.

Ralph's head turned to hers and he opened his mouth, then shut it and tried again as his ears, still a bright pink, twitched.

"Ralph," Nadine said with an indolent purr, "If the food is still bothering you that much, you can just buy me lunch on our next shift, okay? That'll make us even so you can stop worrying about it."

He gaped again and, feeling too comfortably lethargic at the moment to do much else, she rolled her eyes and nudged his muzzle with hers, "Or not, but you're blocking my view of the tv and they're about to kickoff."

Ralph's muzzle closed, a few more emotions flickering across it before he quickly turned back toward the tv. His body remained rigid for a few moments before he let out a long sigh and settled back against her causing her to purr just a bit, as she lounged languorously watching the game continue.

She couldn't really care about her purr and if it was not quite proper at the moment. She was pleasantly full, having splurged on a good meal and was comfortable relaxing with her best friend, who just happened to make an excellently warm and snuggly blanket with built in chin rest, watching what was shaping up to be a rather good game. Everything in the world seemed just about perfect right then and she let herself relax and bask in it.

* * *

"-but you're blocking my view of the TV and they're about to kickoff."

Ralph's jaw snapped shut as Nadine nudged his muzzle out of the way with hers, before giving a contented purr, her eyes half closed almost as if she was going to nap though she still managed to focus on the game. She was doing one of those inexplicable feline things he'd become accustomed to over the years. Half slumped, half sprawled on their part of the sofa without a seeming care in the world, like she was stretched out on the beach basking in the afternoon sun. He'd never quite figured out how she managed to just seemingly flip a switch and chill out wherever and whenever she wanted to, and she'd only ever shrugged when he'd asked about it saying it just came naturally to felines. He was used to it by now, except that he'd always _seen_ her do it before, not been snuggled up to her while she did it.

His ears heated and he quickly turned away from her so she wouldn't see. After a moment's frantic thought, he gave out a long sigh and settled back against her, not knowing what else to do. Her purr picked back up at that and he flushed more as he not only heard but felt the humming thrum coming from her.

He'd just never been… so close to her when she got like this. It wasn't uncomfortable… (in fact it was very _very_ much the opposite but he was trying not to think too much about that.) it was just that he felt so damned _awkward_ after having accepted food from her, not that she had meant anything by it. She was simply being the stubbornly loyal friend that she was. She'd seen a situation that she'd thought was unfair to him and refused to let it stand. And trying to stop Nadine Fangmeyer when she got an idea like that in her head was more futile than trying to move a mountain, or trying to outprank Wilde.

Some things were just impossible to do...

The problem though, was that to wolves, sharing food wasn't just a friendly act, it was a statement that they were willing to care and provide for the other… in a very serious, not just as a 'friend' sort of way. And accepting such an offer…

Ralph looked over and saw all the other wolves subtle watching him just as much as they were watching the game. His ears felt like they'd suddenly just been torched and he snapped them back against his head as he slouched back more trying to hide from all the not well hidden curious and considering looks. That only caused Nadine to adjust the position of her chin resting on his shoulder and snuggle closer, as her purr thrummed a bit deeper.

His heart seemed to skip a few beats and his tail jerked only for him to realize that Nadine's tail had curled about it trapping it as well.

For the first time today, he felt like he was truly caught. Trapped, by the tigress that was holding him hostage. The warm, purring, comfortable tigress with her exotically pleasant feminine scent…

Ralph blushed hard, feeling the heat spread from his ears to his face, and tried to shake away his thoughts as his heart started pounding. He was suddenly, violently, aware of just how feminine Nadine was. It's not like he hadn't known before, nor that it made a difference now, or so he told himself, but he was acutely aware of it anyway. She might not be beautiful in the classic wolfish ways but she had an graceful exotic exquisiteness and beauty that he'd always admired. And she was strong, always fun to be around and… his mind suddenly fixated on the fact that Nadine was _single_. No boyfriend or even crush as far as he knew. That fact was abruptly, exceedingly important to him and filled him with an immeasurable relief.

Ralph noticed his brother glancing at him and then gaped as Bill winked and shot him a thumbs up. His ears snapped back, flat against his skull as he scowled, trying to fight his sudden raging blush before turning back to resolutely watch the game.

This whole situation was just a _Big_ misunderstanding. Nadine hadn't meant anything by offering him food, and he'd only taken it because that was a fight he would have lost anyway. He'd fix any misunderstanding about the food with Bill and the rest of his pack mates afterwards, because that was all it was; a misunderstanding, plain and simple.

 _She_ _ **didn't**_ _mean anything more by offering me food_ , Ralph repeatedly, adamantly reminded himself.

 _Expensive food, which she_ _ **fed**_ _to you_ , his mind unhelpfully added feeding the fire he was trying to beat back on his face.

But she _hadn't_ meant that. She'd only been being his friend because of how arm and leg being cuffed together, and it was because of stupid wolf traditions he was even having these sudden inappropriate thoughts and feelings. It wasn't like Nadine, the strong independent _tigress_ would ever be interested in him, a _wolf_...

_Would she?_

The thought wiggled its way into his mind and Ralph was suddenly at a loss for what to think. It was a possibility he'd never thought about before. He was a wolf and she was a tiger, a canine and a feline, it was unheard of, why it would be more likely for a… for a…

 _For a fox and a bunny to get into a relationship?_ His mind helpfully provided.

"SCOOOOORRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

He was ripped out of his sudden flabbergasted mental state as Nadine groaned and the room erupted in cheers and howls.

It took him a few moments to piece his mind back together before he was able to comprehend that his team had scored.

In a quick panicked manner, Ralph shoved all the sudden thoughts and feelings back into the furthest recesses of his mind and hurriedly walled them up. He could examine how he felt about all this sudden new possibility later… maybe.

Whatever _might_ happen though, Nadine hadn't meant anything by her actions here. He'd have to make sure the other wolves understood that, though he'd probably catch no end of ribbing about the incident. For now, though, those thoughts were a distraction, so he shoved them as far away as possible and focused on the game at hand. He was here to have a good time with his friends and pack mates, which he resolutely thought, included Nadine. She was just as close to him as any of his pack mates; she was his best _friend_ , despite which team she supported, and nothing more than that… for right now… maybe.

Regardless, she needed to be shown which team she _should_ be supporting and _he_ had a bet to win, one in which his current position of being held prisoner, was not helping. With a final effort of will he finished bottling up all of his previous thoughts and joined in with the rest of the wolves as they cheered.

* * *

"No, No, NO!"

"AHGGGGG!"

"Yes, YES! Take _that_! "

"FOUL! That Was A Foul!"

"CARD HIM, THAT WAS CLEARLY ON PURPOSE!"

"Suck it _losers_!"

"NOOOOOOOoooo, Stop HIM!"

"HA! You'll never catch em'! Thought you had this game in the bag did you!"

"Doesn't mater he won't- OMG NOOOOO!

"YESSSSS!"

Mrs. Howlerson jerked, nearly stabbing her paw with her knitting needle as the house next to hers erupted into a cacophony of outraged and incredulous cries and howls punctuated by a triumphant roar. She considered going over and banging on the inconsiderate young hooligans door or calling the alpha to complain again but there was enough sound from the _other_ homes in the neighborhood that it probably wouldn't have done any good.

"All that hullabaloo just over watching a game. If it's so important why can't they go to the game and make a ruckus there!" She grumbled to herself. She re-adjusted the blasted head phones that were _supposed_ to be sound proof, not that the confounding new age gizmo's ever worked like they were supposed to.

"And if they tell me I put the batteries in wrong again…" she muttered darkly trying to regain her knitting rhythm only to lose it again at another roar.

"Blasted cat!" she glared over at the house, "Can't even howl properly! What is this neighborhood coming to, bringing _cats_ into pack homes! Why in my day…"

* * *

"HA! See that?! SEE _THAT_ you wolves! _That's_ why the Prowlers are going to take the championship!" Nadine shouted gleefully, pointing emphatically at the TV as every other wolf in the room tried shouting her down.

Ralph, judged she was done roaring and thus it was safe for him to let his ears up (though they were still ringing), joined in with the other wolves.

"Oh come on Nadine, even you have to admit that should have been a foul!"

"How is it a foul? He tripped over his own feet!" Nadine responded vehemently, gesturing at the tv replay again, "See, right there!"

"He fell because your player _tripped_ him! Look at where that hind paw is!" Ralph shot back and would have gestured too if his paws were free, though he was working on that; or trying to. He gotten sucked back into the game which had gone into overtime now, _twice_ , and hadn't made much progress on unshackling himself, though he _had_ managed to acquire the key to her cuffs.

"The referee obviously agrees with me." Nadine said smugly and Ralph's ears pinned back angrily.

"That zebra is dumb and blind! Anyone could see he was tripped!" Ralph said almost growling, as the clock ran out and the game headed into a tie breaker kickoff. They'd been _so_ close to victory and then he would have had bragging rights over Nadine for weeks!

Ralph would have continued his argument but Nadine shushed him, and leaned forward, excitedly watching, only to groan as the Pack made the first of the five goal shots and the Prowlers missed theirs.

He snickered, and Nadine turned give him a quick glare, "Not a world Ralph! There's still four shots left-"

"Only three shots now," Ralph said grinning broadly as Nadine's head whipped back around and her face took on pained expression while her whiskers drooped as her team missed their second shot.

 _2-0, with three shots left. We have this and it's about time I started getting out of these cuffs,_ Ralph thought and started working the key around to fit it into the cuffs, which was far harder than any spy thriller made it out to be.

Ralph missed the next couple moments as he worked on the cuffs. He was able to tune out the cheers and groans, but he could feel Nadine's nervous excitement and rapid heartbeat as she leaned against him and _that_ **was** distracting.

He just about had it when Ralph heard Bill's voice.

"One shot left Nadine!" He whooped, "and if we make it we win. Even if we don't all it will take is for you all to miss it _again_! Here, I think Ralph said you might need these because you're gonna be _weeping_!" His brother finished and tossed the tissue box he'd be fiddling with earlier toward her.

Nadine easily caught the box but only shouted back, "Keep dreaming Bill, all your team has managed to do is tie the game!" She said waved the box emphatically, only to stop as the motion caused all the tissues the fall out the hole in the bottom of the box.

"What the hell?" She said looking at the hole in the box in confusion only for Bill to start laughing.

"I told him!" Bill snickered, "I told Ralph that that would never work! Seriously trying to boop you while offering you tissues?" He laughed again only to be shushed by the other wolves before as the Pack team lined up for their final shot… and missed.

Ralph wanted to thump his brother a good one because Nadine had looked at the box and looked at him with a growing smile that had promised retribution before she to had gotten distracted by the final moments of the game, which had as it happened also now consumed his attention as it came down to the Prowlers last shot and chance to prevent the Pack from winning.

The lion stepped up to the ball, looking back and forth for a second before taking a quick step forward and to the side aiming his kick for the far corner of the goal, but then right as the goalie started to move to block the shot, the lion altered the angle of his hind paw and sent the shot arcing to the other end of the goal before the wolf had any tie to readjust.

Nadine gave a whooping shout thought she sounded more relieved than triumphant as the game ended in a tie.

There followed a solid minute of shouts back and forth across the room about what if's and might-have-been's and should-have-wons, before things finally started to settle down.

Nadine turned her attention back to back to Ralph and hefted the now empty tissue box and smiled.

"And what was this supposed to be?" she asked sticking her paw through the hole experimentally, looking at her finger poking through the top and waggled it before looking back at him with a predatory grin. Ralph gulped and scrambled to finish unlocking the cuffs.

Nadine leaned in close, and he tried to lean away not that he could get very far.

"Really Ralph?" she said before looking over at Bill who was snickering at his brother's plight.

"Did Ralph, really think this would work?" she asked and Bill broke out into laughter again.

"I told him it wouldn't…" the other wolf managed to say between laughs, "Told him that something that stupid would never work!

Nadine's grin turned into a sweet smile that had Ralph's ears angled back in alarm. "Well, I can't say it's the _stupidest_ trick I've even seen," Nadine said turning back to Ralph with the box, "I mean it might not have worked on me but it that doesn't mean it won't work at all. Right _Ralph_?" she said as he felt the key slip into the lock on the cuffs as she brought the tissue box up to his nose.

"Nooo! Naidne, wait!" Ralph said franticly trying to buy just a second,

"Boop!"

Nadines finger tapped his nose and she grinned in delight.

"Arghhhh!" Ralph shouted as the cuff on his left paw released a second too late.

"Boop me with my own trick will you!" he shouted as Nadine's eyes went wide at his escape while he brought his paws around scrambling to boop her back. Surprised though she might have been, Nadine reacted fast, bringing her paw up to block his first strike.

Momentarily foiled, Ralph snapped the free cuff around her wrist and then threw himself backwards dragging a very surprised tiger with him.

"A Little _HELP_ here?!" Ralph shouted as they fell in a disorderly heap onto the floor and he scrambled around onto Nadine's back like a wrestler, pulling her cuffed paw behind her. She reached around with her free paw grabbing the cuff and Ralph, with a sudden realization of horror, saw he hadn't removed the key. He jerked on the cuff trying to prevent her from getting a grip and turning it and there was a faint metallic *clink* as they struggled and the other wolves seeing their chance, decided to join in on the fun.

Ralph managed to wrap his legs around Nadine's waist so she couldn't shake him off her back and reached his paw around to boop her.

"Got you now Nadine, Bo- Ouch!" Ralph's victorious shout was cut off as instead of bopping Nadine's nose, Nadine snapped her maw over his wrist, clamping down hard enough to prevent him from pulling away. She rolled, barely avoiding the first of the other wolves that were coming her way and jumped to her feet and sprinted for the door with Ralph still latched onto her back like a limpet and now trying to figure out how to disengage from his suddenly less advantageous position.

"Head her off! Head her off!" Ralph shouted as the room descended into chaos again and Nadine reversed course, from the now blocked front door and bolting for the back door.

* * *

"Finally," Mrs. Howlerson said to herself, taking off the blasted headphones as the neighborhood quieted down long after the game should have been over, "Maybe now we can have some peace and-"

A slew of the young wolves came charging out the front door of the hooligans house shouting in excitement just as that tiger with one of Cassandra's boys came around the corner of the house. The wolf looked like he had tried and failed to tackle the cat from behind got half caught instead.

"Don't let her get to the car!" one of the wolves shouted as the youngsters split trying to circle the cat as she shifted directions and then shifted again finding her escape blocked.

"We'll maybe they're all coming to their senses and chasing that mangy feline out of here." She said to herself with a satisfied huff as the wolves started to close the in on the big cat who, for some reason only seemed to have one free paw. The cat looked around desperately, as the wolf on her back cackled delightedly.

"We got you now, Nadine! Give up, there's no getting away!" the wolf, who Mrs. Howlerson now recognized as Cassandra's boy Ralph, shouted in glee.

"Nottt YYettt," The cat snarled between her maws grip on his paw, before charging side of the closing circle at the edge of her property.

The wolves closed in but instead of trying to break past the wolves like it looked she'd been going to do the tiger leapt with claws out, onto the tree in _her_ front yard and scrambled up it before settling onto the first large branch above all the wolves that were gathered below.

"Why those!… Those!... Those insolent!..." Mrs. Howlerson spluttered in outrage, watching the group of young wolves messing up her front yard and the _tiger_ know perched taunting them in _Her_ tree!

* * *

"Well," Ralph said as Nadine having found a stable spot to perch on the tree limb, removed his paw from her maw with her free hand, "We seem to have ourselves a bit of a Mexican standoff."

"I can always threaten to just boop you again," Nadine said, panting a bit.

"I don't think so," Ralph said tugging on her still cuffed paw he's managed to pin behind her back for emphasis. Instead of unlocking it in their earlier struggle she'd apparently jostled the key loose, not that mattered at the moment, "I've got one of your arms and if you let go of my free one I won't miss your nose again." He said grinning, "Plus we've got you treed. You're not going anywhere, _**Right**_?" he shouted that last bit and the wolves below who all call back excitedly.

"Ya, just try it!"

"Not going anywhere!"

"How long do you think you can stay up there!"

Nadine huffed, before shouting back at the group, "As long as I need too! Unless any of _you_ want to come up here and try to get me out!" and apparently just for good measure she stuck her tongue out at them before turning back to face Ralph.

"And you Ralph, are treed up here with me as well, if you haven't forgotten." she said before adding smugly, "And if I recall the jungle portion of the obstacle course from the academy was always your weak spot.

"Hey!" Ralph said, a bit embarrassed at the memories; he might have failed if Nadine hadn't take the time to help him train on that particular course, "Wolves have never been great climbers!"

"Yep," Nadine said smugly looking down at the group of milling wolves, two of which were now headed back from the house with a ladder. "Wolves really aren't great climbers. Oh, and Ralph… you'd better hang on tight." She said smirking, as the wolves leaned the ladder up against the tree, the top of it coming just the branch she was on.

"What do-" Ralph started to say just as Nadine released his paw and then crouched. "Oh Karma! Nadine!" His eyes went wide and instead of trying to boop her, his freed paw latched onto her as tightly as he could, just as she sprang upwards to a higher limb, and then to another.

"Yes?" she asked sweetly, perching on her new spot as the wolf who's started climbing the ladder just gaped at her show of one pawed agility and aerobatics while weighed down with Ralph clinging to her.

"I don't think they're going to be able to help you Ralph," she said smugly, giving a casually taunting finger wave at the flummoxed wolves below, not even bothering to try restraining his free paw now, though she wouldn't even need to considering the death grip it and his legs wrapped around her waist currently had.

Ten feet up hadn't seemed like a lot but twenty had him feeling distinctly nervous and the way Nadine moved so freely at this height made his stomach jump up into his throat.

"O-okay, b-but you're s-still trapped up here!" Ralph said a bit shakily looking at the ground which seemed like a long _long_ fall from here. "So w-we're still at a standoff. How do you propose we settle this?"

Nadine had settled onto the branch, which, Ralph noticed nervously, wasn't as wide or sturdy look as the lower one and was dangling her tail teasingly just a few feet above the wolf that was now nervously standing on the first branch and seemed to have no intention of trying to get any higher off the ground.

"Well," she said with a snicker, "How about you call off your pack and…" she paused for a second considering, "let me boop you five times before I head home. That seems fair."

"Unacceptable!" Ralph shot back angrily, "That's highway robbery! Blatant extortion!"

"Well we _are_ friends so I'll cut you a deal, only three boops, " Nadine said snickering.

"How about I call off the wolves and I get to boop _you_ three times, so you don't spend the entire night stuck up in a tree!"

"You know, I could always go higher…" Nadine said gleefully and Ralph's death grip on her tightened.

"And that's not going to do you any good, because there's not a chance in hell that I'm letting go until we're back on the ground. Here because I feel like being nice, I'll only charge you two boops for calling the wolves off-"

"WHAT do you all think you're doing on _my_ lawn!" an ancient sounding but quite robust voice hollered, breaking into their haggling and Ralph cringed a bit recognizing it as Mrs. Howlerson's.

"Oh for Balto's sake, not her!" Ralph muttered as his ears flattened back, partly out of irritation and partly out of an automatic reaction to protect them in case she started in on another inevitable rant.

Nadine was looking down over at the old, now mostly gray furred she-wolf walking over to the group below the tree, all the while waving a pair of knitting needles threateningly.

"It's bad enough that you miscreants are always making trouble and noise! Bad enough you invite that… that _cat_ ," she all but spat that last bit waving the needles at Nadine, "Into pack grounds! But don't you _DARE_ bring your shenanigans and that _**cat**_ onto my properly!"

She stopped in front of Bill who attempted to placate her but only received a whack on the head for his troubles.

"You can be sure that the Alpha will be hearing about this! Now, get that _cat_ out of my tree and off my property before I call the _police_!"

"Ummm…" Bill said below, now at a safe distance from the enraged old biddy as he rubbed his head with a paw, "They kind of _are_ the police." He said gesturing up to where Nadine and Ralph were.

Ralph started snickering at the gob-smacked look on Mrs. Howlerson's face as she tried and failed to come up with a response, though he quickly stifled it before she might hear.

"Oh gods, I hope someone took a picture of her face," He muttered to Nadine as the old wolf turned red beneath her almost white furred cheeks and Bill retreated as she started shouting at him again and made another attempt to whack him, "I bet most of the pack would pay to see that old croon speechless for once!"

"Are you sure we shouldn't do something?" Nadine asked a bit uncertainly as they watched the tableau below them which was starting to look like something out of a slapstick comedy routine as the old wolf went about cursing and haranguing all the other wolves who scurried out of her way while trying to avoid getting clubbed by the thick ends of her knitting needles.

"Oh, no absolutely not." Ralph said delightedly, "Why miss a free show?" he snickered, "Plus she could probably use the exercise; nothing like running around hollering at us 'hooligans' to keep that old crow in shape."

Bill was now running around the tree paws on his head as the spritely old wolf chased him, seeming to have decided to focus her anger on him.

"Ya, but what if she _does_ call the police?" Nadine asked still sounding a bit uncertain. "Because I don't think Bogo will find this nearly as amusing as you are. Especially after um… yesterday."

That thought killed all of Ralph's amusement.

Mrs. Howlerson would certainly go complaining to his parents, but she went complaining to the alpha pair at least once a day about one thing or another. The police though…

Ralph shuddered. She was exactly the type of old crone that had the copious amounts of free time and determination to complain that would have her seeking out the highest person in charge she could get ahold of and torture.

"… oh gods, she'd give Bogo a week long migraine and he'd give us a year on parking duty." Ralph whined, before turning to Nadine feeling slightly panicked. "Okay Nadine, how about a truce for the rest of the day? You get us down from here, I call off the other wolves, and we make some apologetic comments before retreating from the wrath of that cranky old dragon."

Nadine hesitated, before finally nodding her head.

"Fine, truce. No more Booping for today." She finally said.

"Okay good, now how are we going to get down?" Ralph asked before clinging desperately to Nadine as she stood up and smiled, "Wait! WAIT! Nadineeee!" his trailed off into a startled yelp as Nadine jumped off the branch only to land gracefully on the one below her were they'd started and making the whole tree shake. Darrel, the wolf who'd climbed up before the commotion on the ground had knocked over the ladder yipped and clutched the tree's trunk as the branch shook.

"Need a lift down?" Nadine asked smugly before scooping the other wolf up around the waist with her free arm and jumped off the lower branch.

"Nadine?!" Ralph shouted in alarm as she landed in a crouch with a bone shaking thump, "Are you crazy?! You could have hurt yourself!"

Nadine let go of Darrel who flopped to ground and rolled her shoulder with a slightly pained grunt, as she stood back up, "Ya… that might not have been the smartest idea, you guys are heavier than you look."

" _Smart_? That was dumber than my tissue box idea Nadine!" Ralph shouted, rather upset at her showing off with such a risky move and whacked her head with his free paw between the ears, "We might be smaller than you but we're not _that_ much smaller! I weigh nearly two thirds what you do! Strong as you are you could have _broken_ something if you landed wrong!" he whacked her head again just for good measure. "What would I have done if you were out for a few weeks with a broken leg, huh?"

"Jeeze! Stop that, I'm sorry alright?" Nadine said trying to cover her head. "Now can you get off and uncuff my arm? We've got to deal with the cranky-"

"MY LAWN!" screeched a voice behind Ralph as he got down of Nadine's back, right before he got thumped by the heavy ends of Mrs. Howlerson's knitting needles, "Look at the paw prints that _cat_ just put in my lawn! Not enough that she has to go scratching up my tree but now she's putting holes in _my lawn_!"

Ralph turned just in time to have the two knobby ends of the needles shoved right into his muzzle.

"You. I demand you have her arrested! Trespassing! Vandalism! Destruction of Property! Disturbing the Peace!-"

Ralph raised his paws in a calming gesture as the old wolf started picking up steam, or tried to as his right paw was still cuffed to Nadine's left, "Mrs. Howlerson, please calm down. We're sorry for disturbing you and we'll-"

He was cut off as the old croon's eyes focus on the cuffs and she gave a harrumph.

"About time you finally did something useful, arresting that mangy mammal!" she said gesturing at the cuffs, "Now go take that _cat_ out of here and lock her up!"

Ralph could feel his hackles rising and he was just about to snap back at the old she-wolf for her insults to Nadine, but the tiger gave him a nudge and with her eyes gestured back toward his house.

Ralph bit back what he was going to say and took a breath to calm himself, having gotten Nadine's silent message.

"Right, Mrs. Howlerson. I'll just go do that right now, okay?" he bit out before starting to back up with Nadine as the old croon alternately shot Nadine venomous looks and bemoaned the mostly imagined damage to her tree and lawn.

The last thing they heard before they escaped back to his house with the rest of the other wolves was her grumbling about how her yard was going to smell like 'mangy cat' for the next week.

"Sorry about that Nadine," Ralph said his ears a bit downcast, "She's a bit stuck in her ways. Thinks every other mammal, _especially_ felines are out to get her and needs to be chased away."

Nadine snorted and shook her head, "Don't worry about it. She's not the first or last old prejudicial mammal out there and it's not like there aren't enough felines that would treat all you canines the same way."

She shrugged a final time before turning to him and raising her paw cuffed to his, "Now, since we have a truce for today, could you return my key that you _stole_ , Mr. Smooth Paws. As much as I like hanging out with you, I think being cuffed to you might be a little much."

"Um… sure." Ralph said a little chagrined, "I think the key fell out over by the sofa," Ralph gesture to the other side of the couch where they'd rolled after the end of the soccer game. He started to head around to the left of the sofa while Nadine tried to head to the right only for their cuffed paws to jerk both of them to a stop.

* * *

It took several minutes and some help from the other wolves as well before Cindy finally found the key where it had been knocked under the sofa.

"This is what you guy's are looking for, right?" she asked straightening up and handing the key, handle end first, over to Nadine, much to the tigress relief. A good police team they might make, but that was actually working against them as they were both trying to work different areas of the scene and had ended up yanking each other all over the place as they searched for the key.

"Thanks, Cindy," she replied, "Five minutes cuffed to this knucklehead, and I might go nuts." She elbowed Ralph who huffed and tried to cross his arms before his cuffed paw was brought up short by her left.

She rolled her eyes, before inserting the key in a practiced motion to unlock the cuffs… or tried to. Frowning, she tried again, but the motion felt wrong. Nothing like it normally did.

"What the…" Nadine said puzzled and tried lifting her paw to get a better look only for it to be brought up short as it yanked on Ralph's arm. She growled in frustration before finally getting a look at better look at the small key hole, which seemed to the blocked.

 _Huh… maybe I got some dirt or bark from the tree in it?"_ she thought and tried to use the key to dislodge the detritus… and then saw that the end of the key was broken.

"Oh shit." Nadine groaned before taking a closer look and hoping not to see exactly what she was.

"What?" Ralph asked a bit impatiently with his paw held up so she could get a better look at the cuffs.

"Ralph!" Nadine said agitatedly turning to him, "You didn't drop the key, you snapped it!"

**Boop Count**

**Ralph: 4**

**Nadine: 3**

 


	7. Chapter 7 - Cuffs & Blackmail

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Here's some general bits of advice that I've found are useful in life, Don't steal characters that aren't yours from powerful companies from Disney (or at least don't let them know that you did), Don't play around with actual tools that aren't toys (like pawcuffs), don't practice hypnotism in a mirror (Hey, stop laughing!), and last but certainly not least don't forget to feed the gaggle of Boop addicted readers. (Seriously don't. *shudder* that pirate crew gets scary when they're hungry!)
> 
> Approved and Edited By: Cimar of Turalis WildeHopps, the pirate admiral I suspect told all those readers were I was trying to hide from them (and don't you try to blame your parrots for that! :P )

 

"My fault?! How is this _my_ fault?!" Ralph retorted indignantly, shaking his cuffed paw as their argument started becoming more heated. "You're the one that snapped the key trying to reach back and unlock it!"

"And that happened because you got sneaky and tried to escape!" Nadine replied a bit shortly, giving the cuff attached to her wrist a yank in return.

Ralph had to take a step to keep his balance, but gave his partner a witheringly sarcastic look, "Really?! And I was just supposed to sit there in your lap so you could _boop_ me?!"

" ** _YES_**!" Nadine snapped, throwing her arms up in exasperation (and dragging his cuffed paw up with hers).

"Oh, so if I took _you_ hostage, then you'd just sit docilely while I _booped_ you? **_Hummm_**?" Ralph continued in a mocking voice, giving her a pointed look.

Nadine seemed to almost blush for a second before she crossed her arms and glared, "Like _you'd_ ever be able to take _me_ hostage."

Her sudden movement though, when crossing her arms caught Ralph off balance as the pawcuffs pulled him forward. He let out a startled yelp instead of his angry retort as he stumbled into Nadine, just managing to avoid smacking his nose into her crossed arms… only for it to smack squarely into the center of her softer chest.

"Will you **_stop_** yanking me around like that?!" Ralph spluttered as he dislodged his nose and shot a glare up at Nadine. He opened his mouth to say something else but his inhaled breath brought with it a sudden wave of her scent and his mind momentarily skip like the reader pin on an old vinyl record.

That exotically feline scent.

Hints of jungle flowers.

A trace of sweat from her running around.

The faint smell of her fur condition.

The light earthy tones of her fur beneath the conditioner…

Ralph's jaw moved repeating the motion of the last thing he'd said though no sound came out.

All those smells and a thousand more trace scents all wrapped up in one familiarly female aroma that he knew as well as his own scent suddenly overpowered him… fascinated him…

The unique white stripes of Nadine's facial fur pattern shifted to more of a pinkish red and she took a quick step back, looking down at her feet and mumbling a quick apology.

"Sorry! Sorry! I didn't meant to yank you, I just-" Nadine made a motion with her paw, her _cuffed_ paw, and then stopped as it dragged his arm around after hers. She groaned, her shoulders slumped and she gave one more embarrassed and dejected 'sorry'.

There were some snickers from the other wolves watching to which Ralph gave a reflexive glare. They all looked away not meeting his eyes, though the snickering didn't lesson in the least. Bill even winked at him before turning away, rallying the group to start cleaning up the mess from the party. Not that it helped much because all the other wolves kept sneaking glances back at him and Nadine while doing a very poor job of concealing their amusement.

Ralph looked back at Nadine who was looking increasingly miserable; like all the fun and fight was being leached out of her. Something about Nadine, the fearless, hard as nails, never back down, terror of the TUSK team Nadine; _his_ partner Nadine, looking like that was just wrong and made his hackles rise in anger.

Shooting one last glare at the other wolves Ralph grabbed Nadine's cuffed paw with his.

"Come on," he said leading her toward the hallway and stairs. "Let's go see if we can at least get the other cuff unlocked. My gear is in my room and we can use my key."

Even with the other wolves out of sight as he started up the stairs leading Nadine by the paw, Ralph's hackles wouldn't go down and he had to repress the urge to growl. The anger was a bit odd since he was usually very even tempered, and he couldn't help wondering if he was over reacting after his little flare up with Nadine. The snickers from his friends were nothing unusual, it was the normal kind of ribbing that he took in stride every day, that he could usually find amusing… the kind he enjoyed right along with Nadine…

"Ralph…" Nadine started to meet his eyes as he turned to face her but then she looked back down, "I'm… I'm sorry for this whole… debacle. I shouldn't have cuffed you earlier…" she looked at his cuffed paw holding hers and then awkwardly let go, "I-It was stupid and I thought it was harmless and I just wanted to-"

Ralph looked at their no longer clasped but still cuffed paws and frowned. Nadine flinched and went quiet, which only made his frown deepen. He looked up at Nadine only to see her ears splayed glumly and whiskers drooping despondently.

" _This_ ," Ralph said sternly shaking cuffs again before giving it a hard yank causing Nadine to stumble forward, "was stupidly _brilliant_ and hilarious and fun and you did it because otherwise you'd never be able to beat me." Ralph finished with a grin as Nadine caught her balance as only a cat could and looked up with a shocked expression only for him to lightly tap her suddenly very close nose with his.

Ralph's grin got bigger as her whiskers twitched and her ears jerked.

"And you're just lucky that we have a truce right now or I'd be closing in on victory." He said leaning back and reaching up with his free paw to boop her nose, smirking at how her long whiskers bounced like the ripples on calm water at his touch.

"Boop!"

* * *

Nadine was too stunned to react as Ralph tapped her nose. She'd thought that he'd been upset with how she'd overreacted to finding her cuff key broken and then with her unthinkingly yanked him around so much he'd tripped hitting her… well, he hadn't appreciated being jerked around, and it had looked like he'd even been too angry to speak for a second, not mention how he'd all but stormed up the stairs.

"Boop!"

Her whiskers twitched spastically as Ralph tapped her nose and snickered, before turning and leading her down the hallway. Nadine just stood there before a slight tug had her following mutely after him while she tried to get her mental balance back (and wished that it would recover as easily and instinctively as her actual balance).

Another tug and she followed Ralph through a door, only realizing then that the tug wasn't by the cuff on her wrist but by Ralph's paw holding hers.

 _When did he grab my paw?_ Nadine thought in confusion looking back down at it. She could have sworn that she'd let go of his…

Nadine unconsciously released her grip again, starting to let go but Ralph's paw only tightened determinedly hanging onto hers.

She felt a slight echo of the heat that had suffused her cheeks from when he'd practically face-planted into her chest return and fought to subdue the reaction. It wasn't like he'd meant too, the cuffs had pulled him…

Nadine shook her head trying to clear it of her jumbled thoughts as Ralph stopped by a dresser and started rummaging through his police gear. Their little game might have gone a little too far with the cuffs and tree and then when they'd found that the key had snapped things suddenly hadn't seemed all that fun anymore. She wished she hadn't snapped at Ralph and started their argument, and now on top of that she had all these stupid embarrassing feelings mixed in just because she hadn't even taken the time to think about the fact that he was cuffed to her when she'd gotten so agitated and...

"Ha! Found it." Ralph said pulling out his pawcuffs in their belt holster and removed a key from a little pouch on the side. He pulled Nadine over to a bed and sat down on the edge giving her paw a tug to do the same.

As she hesitantly sat next to him Nadine finally looked around the room and noted that it must be Ralph's bedroom. His scent was all over the place, strong enough for her to easily smell and his police uniform top was draped loosely on a hanger, precariously balanced of the top of his closet door which was open… and showed a rather disorganized mess of clothes in the closet. Looking around she saw that 'disorganized' was a pretty good description of the room and couldn't help but let out a laugh.

"What?" Ralph said looking at her in a confused manner as she fought to contain the belly laugh. Nadine just smiled, feeling much better, like that laugh had broken the lingering awkward tension from the fight.

She waved a paw around the room, trying not to snicker as she spoke.

"This looks like a college dorm room. A _messy_ college dorm room…" she couldn't hold back a snicker as she pointed over to a desk next to the bed where there were some posters on the wall as well as a bunch of figurines, "Or maybe more like a teenagers room!" she snickered again.

"Hey!" Ralph said indignantly, his ears turning a bit red, "Those are collectables! Everyone loves Star Trunk."

Nadine smiled again feeling their normal banter slip back into place and remove the last vestiges of their short fight.

"Ralph," Nadine had stifle another snicker, "You don't just have posters, you've got dolls and figurines!"

"Those are _not_ 'dolls and figurines' Ralph sniffed irately, "They're _action_ _figures_ and _collector's_ _models_. **_Signed_** collectors models," He added proudly, "See that Chewbacca model, George Lupus himself signed that!"

Nadine rolled her eyes making sure Ralph could see the gesture. "Out of all the stuff you could get signed, why _that_ one? That character doesn't even make sense, I heard that they based it after some extinct prehistoric creature, what did they call it? Apes or gorillas or something?" Nadine waved her paw dismissively, "All it ever did was make that yodeling sound anyway. And _those_ " she pointed at a figurine of a clone trooper a bit of disdain entering her voice, "Clone soldiers couldn't shoot for shit! They could hit everything _but_ what they were aiming for! You'd think that a genetically engineered army of supersoldiers could…" Nadine trailed of as she saw that Ralph was staring at her, a small smile growing across his muzzle in a way that made her danger sense squawk in alarm and her ears pin back.

"You," he said tapping her with a finger, smile still growing, "are such a fan, admit it!"

"What? No-" Nadine tried to say but he ran right over her.

"You were monologuing about the movie Nadine! You even know trivia about the concept story! Admit it, you're a fan!"

"Am not," Nadine said in a huff and started crossing her arms before stopping as her cuffed paw started dragging Ralph's toward her chest. There was a long moment before she finally managed to lamely finish her defense with, "I just like movies."

" _Sure_ you do." Ralph said in clearly disbelieving tone before chuckling and poking her again, "Though, maybe if they had cloned wolves instead of tigers they might have actually been able to hit something."

"Oh, you did not just imply that!" Nadine said aghast, poking him back. "You _know_ I'm a better shot than you, Ralph."

"Really?" he said his smirk gaining a wolfish edge, "Then how about we put that to a test and winner gets to boop the other."

Nadine narrowed her eyes trying to figure out what Ralph was thinking. She knew he was up to something… she just didn't know what... _yet_.

"Fine," she said after a moment and just to be safe, decided to skew this side bet in her favor, "Tomorrow. The rainforest paintball arena. We'll just see who loses then."

"Perfect." Ralph said grinning even more in a way that shook her confidence. "Loser of each paintball match gets booped?" he said sticking out his paw to shake.

Nadine looked at it dubiously for a second before reaching out and shaking.

"Great." Ralph said his tail starting to wag, "Now let's see what we can do about these cuffs."

* * *

Clawhauser sat at his desk, focusing on the biggest problem he had yet faced that day… maybe that week. His eyebrows scrunched together in concentration as he examined all possibilities, searching for the optimal solution. It might not be a life and death problem but it was close… he was down to his last donut and he needed to figure out how to make the sweet delicious treat last as long as possible.

Maybe nibble around the edge first, then take slow bites? He turned the donut in his paw examining it.

Clockwise or counterclockwise?

Perhaps nibble up from the bottom to end with the icing on the top?

Or he could eat the icing first then-

His phone rang startling him and he dropped the object of his consideration.

"NOOooooo!" he shouted out in despair and dove off his chair for the donut as it tumbled toward the floor. Clawhauser knew he wasn't the fittest of the officers, but he was still a cheetah and when he wanted to (if he was being honest, more like if the situation was desperate enough) he could still move with surprising swiftness.

Just an inch from the floor he managed to snag the donut with a claw and twisted to slam back first into the ground to keep the donut from being crushed beneath him. He grunted at the loud _thud_ from his impact while the phone kept ringing but his full attention was on the donut which, unfortunately, had been sent flying off his claw when he'd twisted.

"CLAWHAUSER!" Bogo's voice bellowed from his office, "What in the buffalo blue blazes is that racket?!"

Eyes wide, watching the arc of donut as it traveled through the air, Clawhauser didn't have time to respond as he rolled to his paws and then leapt like a baseball player aiming for home base… and snapped his muzzle shut on the donut right before hitting the ground in a slide that clipped his desk, sending items clattering to the floor.

" _CLAWHAUSER_!" Bogo bellowed again, and not in his usual 'how's the weather today' bellow but, 'someone's about to get parking duty' bellow.

Clawhauser swallowed (half enjoying the sudden sweat flavor of the donut, half depressed that he'd eaten it in one bite) and quickly answered the chief.

"Um, sorry Sir! Phone just startled me! Got to answer that!" he hurried to picked up the phone and answer with an overly loud "Hello, Precinct One."

There was some angry grumblings from Bogo's office, but apparently seeing (or rather hearing) that Clawhauser was doing his job the grumbling died down and Clawhauser gave a sigh of relief.

"Hey, Benji! Buddy you got a free minute?" Wolford's voice came over the phone as he took his seat again and looked mournfully at the now empty donut box.

"Sure, Ralph. Weekend shifts been pretty dull so far. I think even Bogo is bored with his Gazelle dance app and is hoping some problem will come up that he could handle personally. What's up?" he asked, this time in a normal voice, so as to not gain Bogo's attention again.

"Um… well, I ah… certainly don't want to bother the Chief. We- I, just had a question about these new pawcuffs we got issued. Certainly nothing to bother Bogo about." Ralph said a bit nervously in a way that immediately set off Clawhauser's gossip sixth sense.

"Ohhhhhhh…" Clawhauser nearly squealed in delight, though he kept his voice low and conspiratorial, "What did you do that 'certainly' isn't worth the chief's attention?"

"Um…" Ralph seemed like he was second guessing his decision to call but continued, "Nadine and I were… ah, doing some practice drills and we seem to have a bit of a… problem." Ralph said sounding a bit chagrined and slightly desperate, before adding, "just a _small_ problem, **_not_** a Bogo needs to know about this problem."

Clawhauser grinned. Gossip might not be as good as donuts but it was close and there'd been _nothing_ going on today. He'd been forced to re-watch reruns of Gazelle's concerts just to stay awake.

" _Practice_ drills?" he asked probingly and heard a cough from the other end of the phone line.

"Ahem, Yep! You know Nadine, absolute perfectionist. Said my take down techniques were sloppy and that I needed practice-"

"Your technique _was_ sloppy!" Nadine said disapproving, interrupting Ralph, "Otherwise you _might_ have actually had even a chance at pinning me."

"Wait, I thought you two were watching the game today?" Clawhauser said feeling like he was missing something, and this time it was Nadine that responded sounding a bit chagrined and almost… embarrassed?

"We were!" she said way too fast, "but, ah, since we were hanging out already, we um… decided to get some practice in too!"

Clawhauser was sure there was more to the story and was about to probe further but Nadine hurried on before he could ask.

" _Anyway_ , Clawhauser, we ah… sort of broke the key to my cuffs… in one of the cuffs…" she said trailing off and Ralph picked up.

"Ya, and… well… we can't even get the other cuff to open with my key either… these cuffs should work with anyones key from the precinct, right?"

"Owww," Clawhauser winced. "Ya, Ralph's key _would_ work… except for the anti-tampering features on this model of pawcuffs, remember the briefing on them?"

There was a resounding "No." from both Ralph and Nadine before Ralph added, "Benji, the briefer was _Slothson_. You and Judy were the only ones who managed to stay awake through the entire thing!"

"Hey! The Chief also managed to get through it," Clawhauser added a bit embarrassed; he'd maybe had one (or four) too many of the new super sugary Snarlbucks Frappuccinos that had come out the day of that now infamous briefing and hadn't been able to help but stay awake (and literally bouncing in his seat. Nick, before he'd fallen asleep, had managed to get a picture of him looking like Tigger from the kit's show Whinny the Pooh, bouncing in his seat with his tail curled almost like a spring).

"The _Chief_ ," Ralph retorted, "may have _stood_ cross armed and stern faced through the whole briefing, but he was asleep on his feet! That's how _someone_ mysteriously drew an eye patch as well as an evil villain's mustache and goatee on his face and then put the sharpie in his hoof." Clawhauser did remember that, and had to stifle a giggle. Bogo had been _livid_ , almost piratically so, but the perpetrator had been smart enough to wipe their own pawprints from the sharpie (Bogo had it checked and his hoofprints where the only prints on the marker), "But that's not the point," Ralph continued, "You were actually _awake_ for the whole 4 _hour_ briefing on these new pawcuffs. So, how do we unlock these? Or at least unlock one side of them since the other is stuck?"

"Well…" Clawhauser started slowly, "If the key broke on one side and jammed it, then the anti tamper feature probably has both cuffs locked. You're going to have to come in so our supply and repair department can unjam and release the tamper lock." Clawhaser winced again and added, "And that _might_ be a problem, like a 'we need the Chief' problem."

There was a dead silence from the other end of the phone line so Clawhauser asked, "Umm… did Nadine just cuff _you_ or cuff you _to_ something, Ralph? Because that might be even _more_ problematic."

"And why do you think _I'm_ the one cuffed?" Ralph replied in an indignant and distracted voice as there was a muffled snicker that Clawhauser was pretty sure was from Nadine.

Clawhauser shrugged, though neither of them could see it, before saying in an apologetic voice, "Ralph, the odds of for our training bouts are 3 to 1 against you when you go up against Nadine."

There was another snicker that was almost audibly smug before Ralph snapped, "Well, despite your odds, I managed to cuff Nadine-"

"No," Nadine cut in still sounding smug, "you didn't cuff me, you're cuffed _to_ me and that didn't work out so well for _you_ now did it?"

"Well at least you neither of you are locked to something and we don't need to get the Chief to send someone out to wherever you are…" Clawhauser mussed before adding, "but we still have a big problem. The supply and repair department is only open in the mornings on weekends and we are going to need Bogo to authorize bringing a tech in off hours for an emergency to un jam your pawcuffs."

There was a short silence followed by low furiously whispered argument between Ralph and Nadine.

"Shit!"

"How are we going to explain this to Bogo?!"

"We can't do that, He'd kill us! _Especially_ after yesterday!"

"No. He wouldn't kill us, he'd keep to his word and stick us in one of those joke mobiles!"

"And that's better _how_?"

Clawhauser curiosity got the better of him and he asked, "What happened yesterday?" to which there was another long silent pause before both Nadine and Ralph nearly shouted, " _Nothing!_ " before their low argument continued, this time too muffled for Clawhauser to hear.

* * *

"We're screwed!" Ralph said flopping back on his bed in despair as he held one paw over his phone's speaker, "Bogo is going to be-"

"Bogo _isn't_ going to hear about this!" Nadine said firmly, before looking right at him with an intent if panicked expression. "Look, the supply department will open up at tomorrow morning at 8. We just have to wait until then and that way Bogo will never have to know about our little snafu."

"Only problem about that plan is that we're _cuffed_ together Nadine!" Ralph said giving the pawcuffs a small shake, "Are you planning on spending the night and sleeping here?" Ralph said sarcastically gesturing around his room, and then froze as he'd comprehended what he'd just suggested. They were in _his_ room, _his_ den. If Nadine spent the night with him here… in his bed…

Just him and her…

Both single…

Sleeping together…

He was suddenly acutely aware of her scent again, and a sudden heat suffused his cheeks as his heart started hammering away and his mind freaked out.

 _Oh, gods if the pack found out about it…_ _and with the incident with the food earlier…_

And to think that a pack of wolves _wouldn't_ find out that he was hiding a tigress in his bed in the middle of the pack neighborhood?

_This is going to be a biggest scandal in years, decades,_ _**centuries** _ _! This is going to make the story of Balto look like-_

Nadine broke through his thoughts with an amused scoff.

"No. _I'm_ **not** spending the night here," she said with absolute certainly that, while calming his panicked thoughts, also for some reason made him feel supremely disappointed and dejected.

" _You're_ going to come over and spend the night at _my_ apartment," Nadine finished, and Ralph's heart which had just slammed on the brakes suddenly let up and hit the throttle again.

"What?" he asked stupidly, feeling like he'd had a bad case of whiplash.

Nadine rolled her eyes, getting up off the bed and then when he only blinked stupidly at her, took his cuffed paw in hers and pulled him up as well. Then, deftly taking his phone out of his other paw, she quickly spoke to Clawhauser.

"Benji, we got this figured out. There is **_no_** need to get Bogo involved." There was a pause as she listened for a second, then continued, "Nope, we'll be fine. We can get this take care of tomorrow morning when they open up, Ralph can just sleep over at my place tonight." Another pause, and Nadine's whiskers went taught and her cheeks reddened as a high pitched squeal came through the phone.

" _Benji_!" Nadine squawked somewhere between a whine and a shout and facepalmed. She groaned and then in a defeated and resigned voice said, "Benji, if you swear to never speak of this to _anyone_ I'll buy you donuts for a week… yes, your favorite ones with extra icing."

There was a muffled response and Nadine grunted again before ending the call and handed him his phone back.

"Okay, let's get out of here before anyone else gets any stupid ideas," Nadine said looking around his room.

"Um… stupid ideas about what?" Ralph asked still not tracking all that well as he watched Nadine snag a duffle bag sticking out from under his bed and then pull him over to his dresser.

"About our 'sleep-over' tonight," she said biting out the word. "Gods, Clawhauser can gossip worse than highschool of click of teenager girls! Just because we're going to spend the night hanging out together doesn't mean that we're going to make out or anything!" she finished in an embarrassed, red cheeked and slightly peeved tone.

 _Spending the night 'hanging out' and sleeping while cuffed together_ , Ralph's mind noted unhelpfully, making his own cheeks heat a bit and then just to make it worse added, _in_ _ **her**_ _den_.

"Umm… Nadine," Ralph started hesitantly as she threw some of his clothes in the duffle. "Are you sure this is a good idea?" Given Nadine's determined expression he knew it was pointless question but he didn't know what else to say.

"All my stuff is at my apartment so we have to go there anyway. No point in coming back here after that," she said closing the drawer and opening another. "Plus, you share this house with Bill. _I_ don't have roommates."

"Right, I guess that makes sense- HEY!" Ralph snatched his boxers she picked up out of her paw and blushed furiously.

Nadine looked at her empty paw and then at him questioningly, and then after a confused second giggled.

"Ralph, stopped being such a baby, they're just _boxers_ ," She said in an extremely amused voice.

Ralph's blush flared and he took the duffle bag and quickly stuffed the boxers into it before turning to the dresser to add a few more items. Also so he wouldn't have to look directly at Nadine.

That, it turned out, was a mistake because Nadine, like some prehistoric predator sighting a weak prey, practically pounced on his obvious display of embarrassment, leaned in close and purred, "Well I think the heart pattern on those boxers make them absolutely _cute_."

Ralph's blush traveled up to his ears as he hurriedly finished packing his duffle bag and practically bolted for the door, dragging his giggling partner behind him. He'd nearly gotten her through the door and out of his room when she stopped and reached over to his overflowing dirty clothes hamper and, to his mortification, picked up a pair of white boxers with a red kiss pattern that had fallen to the floor.

"You really should clean up just a little before bringing a girl into your room, Ralph," she said with an ear to ear smirk while holding the boxers up and raising an eyebrow in a preposterously smug manner.

Ralph's face felt like it might melt from the intensity of his blush and cursed himself for spending the morning goofing off rather than cleaning like he'd planned to. Nadine though, leaned in close whispering, "We might have a truce for today, but I won't ever tell anyone about this," she twirled his boxers on a finger, "or the state of your room… in exchange for a _boop_."

"That's blackmail!" Ralph hissed, ears pinned back as she twirled his boxers around again and her smirk got bigger.

"Oh?!" she asked with a mockingly shocked expression and speaking in an overly demure manner raised her cuffed paw to daintily cover her mouth, "Are you going to _arrest_ me then?!" she gave the cuff a shake and snickered as her voice shifted back to its normal tone and she added smugly, "Not that it would do you any good. So what will it be _kissy_ boy?" she twirled the boxers again and pulled out her phone to snap a few pictures of them and his room.

"Fine, _one_ boop," Ralph nearly growled. Nadine beamed and flicked the boxers over onto the overly full hamper. Then as he braced for her to boop him, she turned and walked past him, grabbing his cuffed paw with hers and leading him back to the stairs.

Ralph blinked and then followed after as she gave his paw a tug.

"Ummm… are you giving up your ill-gotten gains?" he asked in mild confusion only for Nadine to laugh.

"No," she said still chuckling. "I'm just going to wait until you forget you owe me an unconditional boop and _then_ take it." She looked back at him, her hazel eyes sparkling as she grinned, "That's going to be _so_ much more fun don't you think?"

…

'Fun' was not exactly what Ralph would have called that prospect. Nor would that have been what he called their attempt to quietly leave through the back door. Bill had unfortunately seen them and taken one look at his duffel bag before shooting him a not to subtle thumbs up and wink.

The drive back to Nadine's apartment though, he decided, might be termed 'interesting'. By Bogo's decree, Nadine had to drive but her left paw was cuffed to his right, meaning they had to first climb in through the same door, and then that their cuffed paws were awkwardly crossed over each other. It would have been easier for Ralph to drive but they both agreed that it simply wasn't worth the risk of Bogo's wrath and the doom of being stuck in the joke mobile. Given their luck, if Ralph drove they'd probably end up pulling up to a red light right alongside the Chief and get caught.

In Ralph's opinion, 'Fun' was when they got to her apartment and he got a chance for a little payback for her blackmail.

* * *

Nadine gave a little sigh of relief after she parked the cruiser at her apartment. The hazardous driving course at the Police Academy had taught her a lot, but it hadn't had a section on driving while cuffed to another mammal. Traffic had been light though and she'd driven slowly. Ralph had even helped as much as he could by trying to give her cuffed paw as much room to move as possible, though having him practically lean on her the entire drive and his arm constantly brushing against her had been distracting in its own way. Good driving though meant avoiding distractions so she'd adamantly tuned out any and all other thoughts beside driving.

After crawling over the seat to exit through Ralph's door she took a moment to arrange his duffle bag so that at a glance it might look like they were carrying it together… or maybe holding paws. Gritting her teeth though she decided that it was at least better than looking like they were cuffed together.

Luckily though it seemed that her precautions were unneeded as they didn't see anyone else as they made their way through the lobby and up to the stairs of the old apartment building. Nadine was just thinking that she was home free when she turned the corner on her landing and ran into the last person she wanted to see right at that moment.

"Hey, Nadine!" Megan called from down the hall, causing Nadine to flinch. "I'm heading out to hit the town and have some fun, want to join me? We could go find you a nice hunk and take care of that dry spell you're having- Oh!" the little bobcat, wearing a little black dress stopped as Ralph came around the corner of the hall and into view.

"Well now," Megan said lasciviously looking between the two of them and then eyed Ralph up and down in a very blatant manner. "Looks like you're already way ahead of me."

"No, no, No!" Nadine said quickly taking a slight step forward and to the side, blocking Megan's view of her paw cuffed to Ralph's and franticly waving in negation with her other, "This is _absolutely_ not like that! This my police partner, Ralph and we're _just_ hanging out for the night, nothing more!"

Megan's face looked slightly disappointed until she suddenly beamed with an absolutely evilly gleeful look on her face.

" _Wait_ ," she said excitedly despite Nadine's attempt to shut down the conversation, "Is this _that_ 'Ralph'? The one you were calling out for in your dream last night?"

Nadine's face _burned_ as she tried frantically to shush Megan, not that it did any good. One glance back at Ralph, only to see his ears cocked in a _very_ interested manner, made her face and ears seer as she hissed at Megan, "I was _not_ dreaming of him last night!"

"Oh, so he's only a substitute for this other Ralph?" Megan asked in an innocent questioning tone that made Nadine snap back at her.

"There is no other Ralph!"

The moment the words were out of her mouth she wished she could take them back because Megan smirked in a way that screamed 'gotchya!' and she tried to correct her statement.

"I mean **no** _dream Ralph_! No dream, dreams!" she nearly shouted, to little effect considering Megan's look.

"He's _not_ my date, he's my partner!" Nadine nearly snarled, and then added exasperatedly as Megan gave her a gleefully scandalized look. " _Police_ partner."

Nadine glared hard at Megan for second before the bobcat finally shrugged nonchalantly.

"Fine, if he's _only_ your ' _police'_ partner," she said looking right back at Nadine and the at Ralph in a predatory fashion. "You won't mind if I hit on him… I've never so much as kissed a wolf before let alone taken one home… and he looks good enough to eat."

She gave Nadine a smug look before eyeing Ralph like a particularly tasty treat, slinking toward him in a hip swishing, tail snapping, sort of way.

Before she could think of how to respond, Nadine had taken an involuntary step in front of Ralph and barred her teeth, a low warning growl coming out that only had Megan grinning even more. Then as if the world was conspiring against her, Ralph spoke up, a teasing playful edge in his voice that warned her that everything was about to go to hell.

"Megan was it?" Ralph said casually, stepping to the side so that he could smile at the bobcat and give her a mildly appreciative and appraising look that had Nadine clenching her jaw.

"That's my name, so how about it hot stuff? Care to come and party with me for the night?" Megan said coyly, practically preening as she slowly arched to show off her dress and figure apparently unperturbed by Nadine's increasing growl.

Ralph grinned but shook his head before responding just as coyly, "Sorry but we wolves really only go in for one _partner_ for life and Nadine's already chained me to her," he said and then held up his cuffed paw, jiggling it around. Nadine's growing growl suddenly morphed into a despondent groan and she tried to hide her face with her other paw as Ralph smirked smugly at her.

Megan snickered and then looked right at Nadine. "Really Naddy, most mammals give each other a ring and mark each other to officially tie someone to them, don't you think this is a bit too literal?"

Ralph choked slightly at that and blushed while Megan snickered again as Nadine's face flared.

"Opps, forgot he's a wolf, guess it _is_ quite literal with him," Megan winked at Ralph who by an apparent sheer effort of will (or Nadine suspected, desire for some payback) managed to recover his composure and despite his still very pink ears, _winked_ back at her.

"You know," Megan stage whispered to Nadine from behind her paw, and pointing at the cuffs with her other hand, " _that_ isn't what wolves mean when they say they're tied to their mates right?"

"Megan!" Nadine pleaded, "That's not what… we're not like that… I mean he's my…" Nadine stammered as her friend's grin just got wider and wider. Nadine gave up and groaning, turned to Ralph in desperation, "Help, please?" she asked desperately waving a paw at Megan. "You've got me, now explain that we're not like that to her because if you want literal, she'll take this _literally_."

Ralph crossed his arms, pulling her paw toward him by the pawcuffs like she had earlier though he didn't do it fast enough to make her stumble, and smirked at her.

"If she takes this literally, then it's _your_ fault." He said smugly. "You're the one that said my boxers were 'cute' after all." Nadine groaned again as Megan broke into a stifled fit of giggles.

"Ralph!" she whined her cheeks flaring, "Uncle! You won, happy now? What more do you want?" Nadine said desperately.

"Hummm…" He murmured theatrically tapping his chin before snapping his fingers like he'd just figured out the answer. "How about that boop back?" he said and smirked at her.

Nadine stiffened and glared back at Ralph, not even noticing Megan's sudden focused interest.

"No, I won that fair and square," she said cheeks burning as embarrassment mixed with indignation as she thought of giving up here building advantage in there bet.

"You got that by blackmail," Ralph scoffed, "and turnabout is fair play, so what is it Nadine?" he took a step closer, right up to her and grinning, "that _boop_ ," he nudging her nose lightly with his, "is my price."

There was a muffled squeal from Megan that Nadine didn't even hear over her suddenly hammering heart as she and Ralph locked gazes in a stare down.

Nadine's whole world seemed to shift, narrow down until it was just her and Ralph and the pounding thumps of her heartbeat as she stared into those unrelenting gold eyes.

_Thump… Thump… Thump…_

She'd lost earlier.

_Thump… Thump… Thump…_

And if she lost now she'd also lose what she managed to win. What was _hers_.

_Thump… Thump… Thump…_

Nadine couldn't let that happen, _refused_ to let that happen. To lose to Ralph again today, not here… not now… not in front of Megan…

_Thump… Thump… Thump…_

Gritting her teeth, she pressed her nose back against his and snarled out, "Not. Going. To. Happen."

_Thump… Thump… Thump…_

Ralph smirked, "Fine then, if that's your choice then your friend can think whatever she wants to of _this_ ," he broke eye contact and then kissed her square on the mouth.

There was a moment of elation at winning the stare, a moment of shock at Ralph's sudden move, a moment of pure thrill at the contact, a moment of panicked uncertainly at the thought that Megan was watching.

Her jaw dropped, whether out of surprise or to say something she had no idea but Ralph hadn't stopped kissing her and he took the opportunity she'd unknowingly offered, deepening the kiss. Nadine's world seemed to fade out for a few moments, consumed by more primal senses than mere sight.

There was the feeling of Ralph's lips against hers, the pounding beat of her heart and the thump of her back hitting the wall behind her. A tugging on her wrist and the feeling of fur beneath her paws. All she could think about was the smell, taste and feel of Ralph as the kiss went on and on…

...until it didn't.

Nadine blinked owlishly, trying to figure out what had just happened. If her back wasn't up against the hallway wall she was pretty sure she would have fallen right then because her legs felt like jello. She blinked again and saw a supremely smug Ralph just an inch away in front of her. He smirked and then leaned forward and she fully expected him to kiss her again but his muzzle slid past her's and he whispered into her ear, "Guess you won today. I hope you enjoyed your victory."

"Well, Nadine," Megan said sounding way, way, _way_ too gleeful. "You seem to have a firm _hold_ of your _partner_ so I'll just leave you two be." Nadine blinked again and looked down only to find, to a rising feeling of mortification, that her paws were wrapped around Ralph's back, holding him close to her.

Nadine made a half choked sound of alarm and let got as Megan snickered and headed past them toward the stairs, but stopped before heading down.

She looked back with a predatory gleam in her eye and asked, "He doesn't have any brothers does he?"

Ralph's smug grin instantly vanished, replaced by an alarmed look that Nadine's punch drunk mind and panicked mind latched onto.

She might have won the stare, for all the good that pyrrhic victory was, but that alarmed expression of Ralph's was like a final opening in their running battle of the day and she was desperate to get one last win in no matter how small of a victory it would be.

"S-sure, he does," she said a bit shakily, and managed the start of a grin as Ralph's eyes went wide in alarm. "His brother's number is muhhhahh…"

* * *

Ralph had only kissed Nadine because she'd called his bluff… and it turned out to even his own surprise that some crazy part of him apparently _hadn't_ been bluffing. That part of himself that seemed fascinated by her, by her scent, her fur pattern, her eyes, that she was still _single_ …

He'd been sure he'd win, so what was the harm in bluffing… and then he hadn't. Her lips had been right there, so close to his, and he couldn't let her find out he'd _actually_ been bluffing could he? Or so that other part of him had whispered.

So he'd kissed her and instead of some short kiss, she'd opened op to him and he hadn't been able to resist and then she'd started kissing him back, pulling him forward...

That kiss sparked a hope he hadn't even realized he had, a hope that had the crazy part of his mind wanting to howl in euphoria. A sudden hope from the way she'd started to kiss him back that maybe, just maybe, that crazy portion of his mind might not be so crazy… or maybe that Nadine might just be crazy enough to give him a chance… he'd be perfectly fine with that too. Nadine was his best friend, his de facto packmate, but maybe… maybe there was the chance for something more? She had kissed him back after all…

His euphoric thoughts though came to screeching crashing halt at the mention of his brother… of the pack.

The rumors that would be flying around back at the pack from the food incident would be bad enough right now, if that little spitfire in a black dress got ahold of his brother. Well he didn't really care too much if she hog tied Bill and dragged him back to her den, but what she would almost certainly say about him and Nadine…

There would be more than just jokingly muttered rumors and sly suggestions about him and Nadine and he couldn't have that.

Not yet.

Not when he didn't even know if this was just some freak accident never to happen again or if it might be a start to something more… something that part of him seemed to suddenly want very, _terrifyingly_ badly.

And if there was any chance of this being something more, then he couldn't have interference from pack politics ruining it before it even had a chance; he couldn't let that little black dressed bobcat torpedo his fledgling hope.

"S-sure, he does," Nadine said in answer to her friends question as she started giving him a smirk that had him completely and utterly panicking, trying to figure out how to keep her from saying anything more.

"His brother's number is-"

So he kissed her. _Desperately_. Kissed her hard and deep angling his muzzle to fit with hers so she couldn't say anything to her friend. And kept kissing her as her paw dragged down his back by the cuff until she grabbed his hips like she might shove him away, then kissed even more desperately when instead she pulled him ever so slightly closer.

He continued to kiss Nadine with complete unbridled desperation until he couldn't hear even the faint trace of Nadine's friends' snickers as she headed down the staircase. Then kissed her more just for good measure and because he was afraid it might never happen again.

Really, he only stopped kissing her because at some point his mind screamed that if he didn't stop kissing her and breath he wouldn't be able to kiss her because he'd pass out from lack of oxygen.

So he held the kiss savoring every last second of it until he had to break it and gasped for breath, slumping against Nadine.

Then next few moments were a mix a residual euphoria mixed with a rising trepidation as he breathed hard, worrying that maybe he'd pushed things slightly (as in way, _way_ ) too far with that kiss, let alone with the first.

"I can't _believe_ you just did that!" she said, not really angrily, well not angry at him, he _knew_ when she was angry at him. This was more angry that he'd gotten one over on her. The relief that brought almost made him light headed, and he hoped maybe he she thought it was all part of their normal friendly back and forth game… just more kissy than normal… because kissing sure as hell hadn't ever been part of it before. (and he couldn't help but hope that maybe it would be part of it in the future.)

"I can't believe you were about to throw Bill to the wolves… um, I mean cat?" he retorted and Nadine gave an involuntary snort of amusement, but then narrowed her gaze at him.

"Fine," she said getting her breathing under control, "but you kissed me _twice_ and that only excuses _one_!"

"Well, you blackmailed me too," Ralph said giving a shrug, not quite looking her in the eye as he tried to figure out how to stop leaning against Nadine without bringing attention to the movement and making the situation extremely awkward.

Nadine though, solved that problem. She huffed exasperatedly and with her feline grace moved to pick up his duffle from where it had dropped before she stomped down the hallway, leading him by the paw and muttering the whole way about how he'd tried blackmailing her too while her tail snapped back and forth in an unpredictable manner.

"The difference is that you _successfully_ blackmailed me while I didn't," Ralph added, still feeling rather giddy as she stopped at her door and unlocked it, and then added as they entered, "Enjoy your victory while it lasts though because I'm still going to win our bet."

That got another exasperated huff, to which he grinned.

"You realize that Megan's with the Zootopia Fire Department and she's going to be telling all sorts of wild tales about us now, right?" Nadine said tossing his duffle next to the couch in her small living room as she ducked under the low doorway in her apartment, entering her kitchen with a determined stride.

Ralph made a dismissive noise and gesture before adding, "And who at the ZPD would ever believe one of the wild tales the ZFD are always telling? Anyway as long as she, a _feline_ , doesn't start telling tales to my pack I don't really care."

"Ya, well she's my neighbor and I'm never going to hear the end of this," Nadine muttered darkly as she took something out of her freezer and then started rummaging around her cabinet.

"Well, that's your problem to deal with not mine," Ralph said, snickering, "Though, I'd really like to see how you're planning on dealing with her. You sure she's just a bobcat? Not a cougar in disguise or something?"

Nadine snorted in apparent amusement at the idea, before finding what she was looking for. "Ralph, _this_ is how I'm planning on dealing with Megan's gossip for tonight." She said and handed him a bottle of tequila and then grabbing some miscellaneous items and the oversized tub of ice-cream she pulled from the freezer.

"You," she poked him in the chest, saying sternly, "have _no_ idea the kind of headache you just caused for me! Megan is going to be absolutely insufferable for gods know how long now."

Ralph looked at the bottle in his paws and then at the ice cream she was holding and raised an eyebrow, "Anddddd… your solution to this is alcohol and ice cream?" he asked rather dubiously.

"No," Nadine said pulling him back toward her living room as she ducked the low door frame again, but stopped on her way to double check that her front door was locked with deadbolt thrown… and then as if for good measure grabbed a chair and wedged it under the door handle. "My solution is to hide in my apartment with alcohol, ice-cream, and _movies_ until the worst of Megan blows over." She stated flatly like that should have been obvious. " _and_ ," she added as she ducked into the living room, pulling him along and flopping down onto her couch, "Since I won the stare, _and_ we're in _my_ house, _and_ this is all _your_ fault, I'm picking the movies."

Ralph shrugged and sat down on the couch. He'd gone with Nadine to enough movies to know her tastes pretty well and they mostly liked the same stuff. Nadine gave him one glance as she thumbed the remote and reached over to snatch the tequila bottle. Unscrewing the top, she took a large swig right from it, not even bothering with the limes and salt shaker she'd dumped on the coffee table.

She then looked right at him with a wicked grin, said, "And just because it'll drive you nuts we're starting with the girliest movie I can think of."

"Oh come _on_ …" Ralph pleaded, a sudden feeling of dread washing over him, "That's just cruel! You don't even like those movies!"

"Well, misery loves company, doesn't it?" she said smirking and offering him the bottle. "So which do you want to watch _first_? The Notebook or Twilight?"

Ralph groaned, flopping back against the couch and took the offered liquor bottle.

**Boop Count**

**Ralph: 4**

**Nadine: 3**

**Truce Still In Effect, so those don't count! :P**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to GusTheBear for his help with some of the character names and references and also,
> 
> a belated call out to BeecroftA of whom I totally did not take the idea for pawcuffs from! :P
> 
> (He's got an awesome story if you have't already read it!)


	8. Chapter 8 - Hangovers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: No Disney did not track me down for stealing their stuff and imprison me in Chateau d'If. (Anyway I already escaped once from there); it just turns out that those with excessively grinchy attitudes can have severe allergic reactions to cootie shots. Who knew? Anyway, now that I'm better, here's some more Boops for you all as well as a cautionary lesson in why drinking too much is a bad idea…
> 
> Approved and Edited By: Pirate admiral Cimar of Turalis WildeHopps, and yes darnit, I escaped one prison only to be captured by pirates and thrown in another.

 

Ralph smiled as he shifted, nuzzling against the soft pillows. He felt happy but… why? He had no idea, but he felt happy and warm and just flat out content. The kind of perfect feeling you got from sleeping in a grassy meadow on a perfect summer day while the sun warmed your fur. And his perfect little meadow even had the two softest, bestest, pillows he could ever remember feeling. He nuzzled against them, finding the perfect spot for his muzzle to rest pillowed between them and sighed taking in the sinfully perfect scent the flowers in the meadow were giving off. A scent that permeated everything, wafting on the breeze that brushed his back like a paw running through his fur, coming from the grass all around him and even from his two oh so soft pillows.

It was such a nice scent, filled with exotic flavors that made him wonder if he was laying in some warm jungle clearing rather than a sunny meadow, but he didn't really care. He was warm and happy and the scent all around him and on his pillows had an aroma mixed in with it that made him daydream about kissing Nadine again… as well as other things… very improper things for a young wolf who wasn't even courting her to think of… but then again… what was the harm in just dreaming a little about it?

She was  _so_  pretty with the way her stripes patterned her fur and how she moved, always with a strong fluid grace. Ralph groaned and buried his nose between the pillows, taking in a long breath of the meadow air that reminded him so much of his partner… well  _police_  partner.

Although… that thought made him think about what it would be like to have her as a real partner, like  _partner_  partner, like  _life_  partner…

She was  _so_  pretty and strong and she made him smile and laugh and that  _kiss_ …

Ralph couldn't help thinking about kissing Nadine again… and then again… about what it would be like to kiss her everywhere… to take her as his mate.

Ralph shifted and groaned, his mind filled with imaginings about having Nadine as his mate, he nuzzled hard in between the pillows wishing that he could nuzzle against her, imagining that they were purring back in that ridiculously arousing way Nadine had yesterday. Imagining that  _he_  was the reason Nadine was purring like that…

The scent around him, exotic and wild and oh so feminine merged with his fevered imagination and his purring pillows and Ralph pushed his nose between them breathing in as much of the scent coming from them as he could, wanting to howl out her name.

Then just at the worst possible moment, a thought entered his mind that shattered his dream and left him confused and uncomfortably aroused…

Why were his two pillows purring?

...

Ralph blinked coming out of his dream, his blurry sight not recognizing anything around him until he blinked again…

Soft white belly fur that trailed off to the beginnings of orange and black striped that vibrated softly under his muzzle where it rested between two higher, softer furry peaks. It still confused him until Ralph took in a breath as his mind started to process what his senses were telling him and he realized that the scent from his sunny jungle meadow dream wasn't similar to Nadine's scent… it  _was_  Nadine's scent…

Three thoughts occurred to Ralph in quick succession.

The first was a silly ridiculously giddy 'she's so  _pretty…'_

The second and more rational thought as he considered the very naked tigress sprawled out on the bed on whom he was laying on top of, was, 'She's going to kill me.'

But the third thought that beat out the first two with its sudden and all-consuming importance was "OWWWWwwwww!"

That last one was due to the splitting headache that throbbed to life in his skull with his rising awareness. Ralph whined piteously, feeling like Bogo was beating on his head with steady rhythmic pounding punches.

* * *

"OWWWwww! OWWWwww! OWWWwww! OWWWwwwwwwwwwwww!"

Nadine groaned as her stupid alarm clocks insistent sound unwillingly pulled her away from her hazy but pleasant dream. She didn't want to wake up, she wanted to stay asleep and continue… what had she been dreaming about? Nadine couldn't remember even as the dream slipped away, despite her best attempts not to let it go.

"OWWWwww! Owwweee! OWWW!"

She groaned again. It had been  _such_  a pleasant dream, whatever it had been. She'd felt happy and comfortable and well… relaxed, satisfied and sated in a way that she hadn't in quite a long while. But reality was insistently banging on her awareness even as she tried desperately to ignore it. Some instinct was warning her that waking up was not going to be pleasant but try as she might to hide from it, awareness had started wiggling its way into her mind and she couldn't shake free of it.

"OWWWwww!"

Nadine growled and reached over to her nightstand to grab her alarm clock, intent on taking out her irritation on that stupid device and its stupid alarm.  _Damnit,_  she thought she'd turned the alarm  _off_  after repairing the stupid thing yesterday? Hadn't she?

Nadine's paw scrabbled around on the nightstand before finally finding the device and with great pleasure tossed it across her room where it made a satisfying  _Thunk_  as it hit the wall. The satisfaction was short lived though, because reality had brought a friend to join her rising awareness. The truly magnificent and vicious hangover that her instincts had been warning her half-conscious mind, washed over her like a steamroller and Nadine slumped, eyes tightly shut and let out a  _long_  piteous moan.

"OWWWwww! "OWWWwww! Damnit, I don't think I've ever had a headache like this, OWWWWWW!"

Nadine's paw reached the stupid alarm clock on her nightstand again before she realized that she'd already thrown it and the noise wasn't coming from the clock. Her eyes snapped open, were hit with sunlight snaking in around the closed window blinds, and Nadine moaned as she snapped her eyes shut as the hangover flared like a gasoline doused fire. This time she whimpered and curled into a ball, hugging her big fluffy pillow wishing it would make the evil sunlight go away.

"OWWAghhhh! Too Tight! Too Tight!  _Nadine! Ouch…_ pointy bits,  _pointy bits!_ Nadine! Watch the  _Claws!"_

Nadine flattened her ears against her head, kept her eyes tightly shut and curled tight around her pillow all the while trying to hide from the insistently loud world for a few more seconds as the flair of sun-induced pain slowly died down to just skull mashing levels.

The noise from her alarm clock or whatever was making the sound was thankfully muffled now and Nadine started taking stock of everything that hurt (Her head, her ears, her stomach, her eyes…) She whimpered again hugging her big furry pillow…

_When did I get a big furry pillow?_

The thought rolled through Nadine's mind, riding the crashing waves of pain before Nadine finally noticed the tapping on her shoulder… tapping like that that of a grappling match and the other trainee was tapping out to show they'd surrendered…

Nadine's brow furrowed as her mind tried to think against the pain, it took a few moments of strained effort but then some pieces of information finally clicked and her eye's popped open, this time thankfully not looking toward her window where the awful sunlight was… though she wasn't sure if the view that meet her was any better.

She was curled around Ralph, all four limbs and even her tail wrapped around him, hanging on like a drowning cat to a lifeline. Her upper body and head were curled around his, forcing his face and muzzle right into her two girls with not even enough room for him to open his mouth and breath.

He mumbled something frantically, tapping her arms and her eyes went wide before she released him, scrambling back as she tried to figure out  _why_  she was cuddling  _ **Ralph**_  in her sleep. For that matter why was  **Ralph**  in her  _bed_? Had they?  _ **NO**_ _,_ they  _wouldn't_ have…  _couldn't_  have… well, they  _ **wouldn't**_ have!

Nadine's pain muddled mind was panicking trying to put the fact that  _she_  was waking up holding  _Ralph_ …  _in_ _ **bed**_ , together into something logical… something she could understand… but the answers were either incomprehensible or were automatically kicked out of her mind for being… preposterous… not true…  _couldn't_  be the reason… and it was right in the middle of those panicked thoughts while she practically threw herself away from Ralph, when she realized that the bed was no longer beneath her.

There was a startled yelp from Ralph, followed by a  _thump_  as she hit the floor, followed by a grunt as all the air was forced out of her lungs from the wolf that landed atop her in a heap.

Nadine just slumped, letting out another  _long_  groan and wondered if she really was awake.

That this was not all just some dream was confirmed half a second later by the next throb of pain in her skull. There was  _no_  dreamed up hangover that could even hold a candle to the exquisite pain throbbing away in her head. No… this was real.

"Owwwwwwww…" The limp heap of wolf on her whimpered and Nadine couldn't help but agree.

It took a few moments before Nadine managed to ask through the fuzzy confused thoughts of her pain filled mind while trying to look up at Ralph, "Hey…  _why_  did you fall on me?"

Another pained whimper from him and then his paw made a shaking motion… moving hers with it.

"Cuffs… owwwww…"

Nadine's head slumped back down and she groaned again.

 _Cuffs… right… that's why he's here… he came over and then we started watching movies… and what the_ _ **hell**_   _happened after that?_

Her head hurt so much and her stomach wasn't doing so well either and her mouth…her mouth felt dry and gritty like she'd gone completely naturalist and given herself a full body tongue bath. She worked her jaw for a second…

 _Yep… tequila ice-cream flavored fur aright… gods, I hope I didn't do that in front of Ralph, that would be_ _ **sooo**_   _embarrassing…_

The cuff rattled on her wrist reminding her of exactly where Ralph would had been all last night.

Nadine whimpered in a combination of pain and mortification.

_Please, please,_ _**please** _ _, let him have already been passed out by then… please, please, please…_

The events of the night before were mostly a confused jumble of nothing and trying to pick details out of that nothing  _hurt_. Some snippets of sitting on the couch, drinking, eating, laughing, cuddling… no, that had  **not**  been cuddling… they'd just… just been sitting close because of the cuffs, but what had happened after that? … she couldn't remember… she was pretty sure she'd been purring at some point… but why? And when had she given herself a tongue bath and why did she have some faint memory of giddy tail curling delight? She couldn't put her finger on it and the memory was too vague and incomplete and her head hurt too much.

Another groan, not that that made her feel any better and she called up to the wolf still flopped limply on her, "Ralph? What happened last night?"

That got a whine before Ralph finally muttered, "Tequila, too much tequila… and…" she glanced up just enough to see his face scrunch in a sort of confused frustration. "I'm not sure… did we sing karaoke?"

"Karaoke?" Nadine parroted confused.

"Ya… I think I remember singing…" another look of confused uncertainty. "I think… maybe? After the movie… right?"

"I have no idea…" Nadine moaned, and moved her paw up to her forehead to massage it. "What about after that?"

"… um…" Ralph trailed off sounding utterly baffled, "I… I don't know… That's all I can remember before waking up…" He trailed off again, seeming rather embarrassed.

_Oh, thank Destiny, he doesn't remember what happened last night either._

That, made Nadine feel ten times better. She could have (probably did) make a complete fool of herself in front of Ralph last night, but if they couldn't remember it was almost like it didn't happen. Nadine didn't really care much what others thought of her. she'd do what she wanted to do and hold her head high and proud like any feline… but Ralph was different, he was her friend. Her  _closest_  friend. Her partner, and Nadine care about what he thought of her… cared  _a lot_. She'd rather make a fool of herself in front of  _Bogo_  than in front of  _Ralph_.

_Best leave whatever happened last night there where we can't remember and Ralph won't think I'm some sort of idiot cat._

That  _was_  a huge relief… but Nadine's head still hurt and her mouth still tasted of fur and tequila and ice-cream and she needed to do something about all of that… and the sooner the better.

With one last groan, Nadine rallied her strength and tried to get up. Tried and then stopped, flopping back to the ground when it was too much effort.

"Ralph," she asked instead, "you planning to get off me any time soon?"

"What? Oh… OH!" Ralph's pained confusion bled away to panic and he quickly tried to roll off her, bumped into the bed, then tried in the other direction and managed whack his head against one of the handles of her dresser. He dropped limply back down on her, cradling his head in his paws and whimpering…

"This is going to be one of those mornings isn't it?" Nadine groaned to herself, and with effort shifted, wiggling out from under Ralph without jostling him too much and started to get unsteadily to her feet.

"Come on Ralph," she said helping, well… more hauling, him to his feet and then promptly used him as a crutch as her head throbbed painfully and pointed to the door, "That way… coffee and aspirin in the kitchen…"

One paw still on his head and the other holding onto her for support, he nodded and they stumbled their way toward the door and down the hallway.

They made it to the kitchen with only one major stumble, though that was her fault because she'd stopped midstep, staring, when she saw the wrecked state of her living room… empty bottles on the floor… couch pillows everywhere, the lamp knocked over and the lamp shade missing… and was that Ralph's shirt hanging from the ceiling fan?

Nadine blinked stupidly before her sudden stop unbalanced Ralph and they almost went tumbling to the floor again. Her head throbbed as they bounced of the wall, almost regained their footing and stumbled again before finally making it to the kitchen, where she decided that before she could handle seeing anything else from last night she desperately needed to deal with her hangover.

* * *

The bump on his head wasn't that bad… but what that bump  _did_ to his head was another story. Ralph only half remembered how they'd gotten to the kitchen as he was too preoccupied with the giant gong that seemed to be ringing painfully in his mind. He remembered handing things to Nadine as she asked, coffee from the cabinet near him… the water filter from the fridge…

She'd put two aspirin in his paw and he'd downed them dry. The smell of the brewing coffee though caught his attention, the aromatic flavor acting like a sort of panacea, beating back the pain in his head.

He could have kissed Nadine when she handed him a still steaming mug of the brew, well actual, he had to admit that he would have been happy to kiss her regardless… but he shoved those thoughts away as he held the coffee mug in his uncuffed paw, bringing it close to his nose and snuffling, letting the earthy pleasant aroma of the brewed beans flood his senses and clear away part of the cobwebs entangling his mind. He blew on the hot liquid and, not caring if it was bad manners right then, lapped at his coffee.

As the warm drink seemed to suffuse his body, he basked in the first almost pain free moment he'd had that morning. Ralph wondered for a minute what kind of sweetener Nadine had used. It wasn't sugar, it sort of reminded him of honey, but wasn't that either; the faint hint of whatever it was mixed pleasantly with the bitter brew and made it taste like pure ambrosia as it washed away the other gritty tastes left in his mouth from last night.

Starting to feel better, he took another sniff of the coffee before asking, "Hey, Nadine. What did you put in this? I think this is the best coffee I've ever had."

There was a pleasurable sigh and Ralph looked up from his mug and then almost dropped it as he stared, transfixed.

Nadine made a brief purring sound as she set her mug down and then with eyes closed, put one arm behind her head, grabbed it with the other and  _stretched_  like a cat waking up from an afternoon nap. Ralph didn't even notice his arm being pulled along with hers, because he was too preoccupied staring at the tigress as she her fur moved and shifted as she stretched full length in front of him.

"mmmhhhhh… taste good because of how bad we felt…" she said, a small smile forming on her face, though her eyes were still closed. She swapped her hands and stretched again. There was a popping sound and she gave a small pleasurable groan before continuing, though Ralph barely heard her. He was wondering if he was still dreaming because he was having a hard time accepting that what he was seeing was real.

He'd thought Nadine was pretty before when he woken up, but the stretching tigress in front of him couldn't be called pretty. Knock down gorgeous, ridiculously hot, and ungodly sexy, didn't even come close either. The way her black and orange stripes and the creamier white fur of her front shifted over the her toned muscles was utterly entrancing. It put every she-wolf of the month calendar he'd ever seen to shame. They way her tail snapped as she stood on her toes and  _arched_  her whole body while faintly purring…

Ralphs eyes felt like they might pop out of his head as they tried to take in every part of her… getting stuck here and there, as he looked from her toes, up her shapely legs, past where her slightly ruffled fur shifted from stripes to a creamy white… up to her lovely toned belly, and had particularly trouble trying to move off those two soft pillows from this morning…

"-didn't put anything in the coffee… mmhhhhhh, black coffee is best for hangovers… *pop*, *groan*… oh I needed that. I feel like I'm half alive now."

Nadine finished stretching, though Ralph couldn't stop his staring.

She grabbed her mug again and finished it off; then refilled it from the carafe before turning to him.

"Want a refill-" The coffee carafe hit the floor and shattered as he heard Nadine give a startled gasp, "Ralph! Oh my gods! Are you alright?"

Her paws were on his muzzle, tilting it gingerly from side to side, before he could bring his cat scrambled brain back together and all he managed to say was a befuddled, "Huh?"

"Your nose is bleeding! Did you hit it when you fell on me? Or maybe when you hit the dresser? By Rajah, are you alright?! I know how sensitive your nose is!" Nadine sounded panicked and hurriedly grabbed a roll of paper towels off the counter before gently dabbing at his nose. "Do we need to take you to the hospital? Get it checked out? I know you canines-"

"Nadine! I'm alright," Ralph finally said, coming out of his stupor and blushing hard as he grabbed the towel she was dabbing his nose with.

"No, you're not!" she replied almost fidgeting in place like she was trying to figure out what she could do to help now that he'd taken over dabbing at his nose, "What if you lose your sense of smell again? Last time your nose got hit, it took a  _week_  for you to get your sense of smell back! What if it's broken, what-"

" _Nadine_ ," Ralph said trying to sound as calm as he could, though that was hard because just glancing at her made his voice want to go all high… and probably didn't help his nose bleed. "It's not that bad, my nose doesn't even hurt, it's just… just… I probably just bumped it," he said not wanting to really think about why he was having a nose bleed. He  _could_  have bumped it sometime between waking up and now and not have noticed it with everything else that had his attention… like his concerned partner, his  _very_  attractive and  _ **very**_  naked partner… that he was cuffed too… and who was naked… right next to him…

His mind seemed to be having a hard time getting past that fact.

He could tell though, just from her stance that she didn't seem very convinced by his attempt to reassure her, so he tried again.

"See, it's already stopped. Just a small nose bleed, nothing to worry about; hasn't even affected my sense of smell." He gave her his best reassuring smile and twitched his nose and said, as if that proved it was fine, "See?"

Luckily enough, his nose did seem mostly fine, beyond the coppery smell of blood, he could still smell the aroma of his coffee and oh wow, he probably needed a shower because he just noticed that he was smelling rather musky and ripe after last night. Though his scent was dwarfed by Nadine's, whose scent dominated the room…a sharply exotic scent that had grown even stronger since yesterday, aided by hints of tequila and sweat and excitement and arousal from the night before layered over it and it made his mind think of the sweet taste he'd noticed when drinking his coffee.

Ralph was looking right at the still concerned tigress, and as his heart started pounding in his ears, all he could think of was how ridiculously attractive that smell was. It was bewitching, completely enthralling… just like the beautiful pattern of her facial stripes… the way the black and orange gave way to a soft white flecked here and there with grey around her muzzle and those longer distinctive and pretty whiskers…

Ralph only realized he'd been staring when Nadine repeated a question in a more worried tone.

"What?" he said stupidly, then quickly tried to correct, "Um… ah…" he looked down, then quickly back up at Nadine who looked almost more confused than worried now at his stammering and muttered, "Sorry, just got caught up thinking…"  _How I really,_ _ **really**_   _want to kiss you right now, and tickle your whiskers and trace your stripes and your jaw and those… grey… flecks… and…_

Ralph suddenly frowned in bewildered confusion, "…why is there gray in the fur around your muzzle? That wasn't there yesterday…"

A baffled puzzled look came over Nadine's face and she reached up, patting around her muzzle for a second as she went cross-eyed before snatching a strand of grey fur off her muzzle and staring at it with incomprehension as she held it just in front of her nose.

The surprised cross-eyed look on her face was so reminiscent of the first time he'd booped her while they'd been holding Nick and Judy's kids, Ridly and Ella, that Ralph couldn't help but reach out and tap the distracted tiger lightly.

"Boop!"

Nadine's jaw dropped, her whiskers twitched and Ralph snickered at her.

"And that one counts because our truce ended at last night," he said grinning broadly at her dumbstruck look. It was only as he stood there, gray furred paw outstretched, finger on her nose right next to the strand of fur she'd been examining, the strand of  _grey_  fur… grey fur just the exact shade of his. A strand of fur that was longer than her coat, more the length of his… that he made the connection…

Ralph looked down at himself, only then noticing that his fur was sort of ruffled and lightly matted, like it had been brushed with a wet comb, and not just part of his fur…  _all_ of it….  _everywhere_.

It was like he'd gone all naturalist and given himself a tongue bath…

That thought hit him and his mind, like the good little detective he'd been trying to train it to be since the academy, traced that fact back and connected it with the strand of fur that hadn't been on  _his_  muzzle…

Ralph's head snapped up and he looked right back at Nadine, whose white facial fur was starting to turn a deep scarlet pink as she began to blush  _furiously_  while her dumbstruck look was shifting to one of mortified embarrassment.

Ralph opened his mouth to speak, though as he stared at his blushing,  _naked,_  extremely pretty partner, a stray thought interrupted whatever he was going to say.

All of his fur had been groomed…  _all_  of it…

He could see  _ **all**_  of his fur.

No shirt…

No pants…

No boxers…

Just fur…

Ralph snatched his tail and covered his front with it…

* * *

Megan had gotten home late in the morning and was trying to get so sleep since she'd partied the whole night, then gone to another party and continued through the early hours of the morning. But sleep was eluding her, and Nadine's alarm clock hitting the wall followed by some muffled thumps and groans didn't help at all.

Megan thought over the night before as she tried to get to sleep again…

There'd been this handsome bobcat like her that she'd danced with for quite a while, and a pretty little lynx that had slipped her her number, but the best part of her night had to have been when she'd seen this wolf being a wallflower while the rest of his friends had been hitting the dance floor. She'd thought 'why not?', remembering Nadine and her 'partner' Ralph, and while the wolf at the party hadn't been as, well…  _wolfishly_  handsome and fit as  _Nadine's_  wolf… he been cute enough.

There was a crash of something breaking from Nadine's apartment and Megan wished that those two would go back to sleep, it was…Megan glanced at her clock then groaned and threw a pillow over her head… it was almost eleven. Ugh. She couldn't blame them for being up but she needed to get to sleep. She'd dragged that wolf out onto the dance floor and had a blast with him. He'd been so shy and hesitant, not really seeming to know what to do with the little bobcat that was dancing with him though he'd loosened up a bit… and when she danced  _really_ close to him his tail would start doing its own cute dance. Megan giggled under her pillow at the way he'd blushed when she'd kissed his cheek as the party ended and she'd slipped him her phone number with a little message to 'call me tonight if you want to come over to my place and party'.

She wondered if he would. She'd certainly need her sleep if he did, and even if he didn't… well there was that lynx's number…

Megan was just drifting off to happy thoughts of what the rest of her weekend might include when there was a startled and epically embarrassed shout from Nadine's apartment.

"I'm  _ **Naked**_! I mean, did I, did you, my fur is…"

"Ralph I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I don't even remember… I'm  _sooo_  sorry,"

Nadine's voice sounded high, panicked and mortified and then unexpectedly broke into a loud almost hysterical giggle, followed by an even more embarrassed shout from her wolf, " _WHY IS THERE A BLUE RIBBON TIED TO MY TAIL?!_ "

That was followed by another unsuccessfully stifled, manic giggle from Nadine.

Megan grinned but couldn't help herself, it was such a perfect opening.

"Maybe because it won first place last night!" she shouted through the wall, then had to stifle her laughter as the wife of the goat downstairs joined in.

"Well, that wolf did have  _quite_  the voice, you should have heard him singing karaoke last night with her. They were even taking request from the other apartments."

"Wait… he got  _Nadine_  to sing? She  _never_  sings! I've tried  _everything_  to get her to sing!" Megan said, sitting up, sleep now completely forgotten amid this piece of gossip about her friend.

"Oh dear, you should have heard some of the duets they did, had the entire floor asking them for an encore, I think someone might have put them on ewetube, they were that good."

"Nooo way!" Megan nearly squealed reaching for her phone while there was just a horrified, "No, no, noooooo!", coming from Nadine.

There was a kindly laugh from the old nanny goat below and she called back up, "Oh don't worry dearie, you two were really quite good, just be glad that his rendition of 'Tequila makes her clothes fall off', seems to have backfired, if he looks  _half_  as good as his voice sounded,  _that_  must be a treat."

Megan snickered. "Mrs. Hornsly, I'll bet you a years rent that she's naked as a jaybird." There was a startled surprised squeak from Nadine, and Megan called down with satisfied, "Called it!"

"Ralph! I… I… okay, don't read into this. This… this is normal for felines, lots of felines tend not to wear a lot while at home, why do you think so many felines are naturalist? Right Megan?" she called over sounding desperate for some help.

That was true enough, but she didn't need to help Nadine out right now, she  _was_  her friend after all.

" _Megan_?" Nadine called again even more desperately only for there to be a resounding quiet throughout the apartment.

"Ralph, I swear that's true! Totally normal. You're in your fur and I'm in mine and it's  _totally_  not weird or odd at all… right?"

A pause

"Um… sure… ya… and um, I believe you… I've ah… just never done the whole naturalist thing…" Megan giggled, the wolf sounded  _sooo_  embarrassed it was adorable, "I… ah… didn't know you were a naturalist Nadine."

"I'm  _not_!" Nadine nearly squealed. "This is just normal for felines at home!"

"Um… okay… and grooming my fur? Is that, um… normal too?"

Megan let out a squeal as she clapped her paws over her mouth, and then giggled just imagining how Nadine must look right now. It wasn't a total surprise considering he'd  _had_  said something about a hostage boop; because, well… if he  _had_  actually booped her nose last night she wouldn't be surprised at all if he'd scored a homerun with her… that or gotten mauled and thrown out on his rear, though considering how possessive Nadine had been of him she doubted she'd reject him like that.

There was a peeved and highly embarrassed shout of, "Shut up Megan!" from the other apartment, which she of course took as her que to speak.

"Well… since you're Nadine's  _partner_  you could call it normal. Oh… wait… you're not  _that_  type of partner, your just her police 'partner', right? Because in that case it's certainly  _not_ -"

"SHUT UP MEGAN!"

She snickered again. The entire time Megan had known Nadine, she'd  _never_ seen her so worked up over a guy, in fact Nadine had never even dated much, and when she had, they hadn't lasted long. She hadn't even gone for any one night stands when she went out with her to party, and Megan  _knew_  she'd had a few offers (The bobcat might have tried arranging one or two).

Megan couldn't help wondering now if maybe she'd just found out why Nadine hadn't seemed very interested in anyone else, she  _did have_  the same police partner for as long as they'd known each other.

_I wonder just how far they went? They made first base last night in the hall and if they're both el natural then second is a shoe in… I wonder…_

"So, Nadine…" Megan called over suggestively, trying not to giggle, "did you groom him  _everywhere_?"

Just the slightest pause before Nadine nearly roared a truly embarrassed, "NOOOO!"

Megan giggled again, and then with a wicked sense of delight asked, "What about him? Did he  _groom_  you at all in return? You do seem full of energy this morning!"

Another tiny pregnant pause and then a truly fantastically frantic roar.

" _ **NOOOOOOO!**_ _SHUT UP! SHUT UP_ _ **! SHUT UP!**_ "

Megan used her pillow to stifle her giggles and decided to give Nadine a break. It wouldn't do to push the big kitty too far.

"Okay Nadine, I'll leave you and your 'partner' alone, it's getting late in the morning and I need some sleep if I'm going to be up later." Megan put her phone away and was about to lay back down when she heard Nadine shout in panic.

"Oh  _gods_! Ralph, we slept in! It's after  _Eleven_! We have to get to the ZPD before noon or we're  **screwed**!"

**Boop Count**

**Ralph: 5**

**Nadine: 3**

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear this is T rated, if you don't think so... well then get your mind out of the gutter!
> 
> Also, I wonder what songs they sang? *Snicker* I can just see Ralph singing 'The Drunken Scotsman'
> 
> Credit for 'pointy bits' goes to MinscLovesBoo,  
> Mister Mead gets credit for the first (as far as I know) to have the idea of lapping coffee :)  
> Also, this should get updated more often now that a certain conspiracy is about to finally come to completion
> 
> Happy 4th of July to everyone! Remember don't go drinking too much or you might regret it in the morning! :)


	9. Chapter 9 - Awkward Mornings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: No Disney did not track me down for stealing their stuff and imprison me in Chateau d'If. (Anyway I already escaped once from there); it just turns out that those with excessively grinchy attitudes can have severe allergic reactions to cootie shots. Who knew? Anyway, now that I'm better, here's some more Boops for you all as well as a continuation of the cautionary lesson in why drinking too much is a bad idea…
> 
> Sooo… someone who request anonymity so the pirate shippers can not track them down suggested a 'walk of shame' boop as an idea a while ago and this chapter has been sitting on my computer for too long. Well actually I really wanted to add on a little more to this chapter but in the end, its been more than a bit too long between postings and all the rest of what I wanted will work out better in the next chapter anyway (plus this was getting too booping long for a single chapter!) Anyway, without further ado, here is all that wonderful awkward embarrassing OMG what did we do?! when the furthest you can scamper away in that walk of shame with your tail between your legs is the length of the cuffs holding you back. (and all kept down, if barely, to that wonderful T rated Highschool level of 'its your fault if your head is in the gutter because i sure as heck didn't say that' hilarity) But hey, sometimes stuff just happens and you just got to panic a little first before you can sit down like reasonable mammals and figure out how to proceed... right?

 

Chapter 9 – Awkward Mornings

"Ralph, come on we need to hurry!" Nadine shouted, half panicked, as she dragged him out of the kitchen and back toward her bed room, "We need to get dressed and-"

Nadine threw open the door to her bedroom and he ran into her as she came to an abrupt halt.

Then the smell hit him. He hadn't registered before but that was probably because he'd been groggy with a pounding headache. But coming back after leaving the room and having a hot cup of coffee to wake up his nose…

Nadine slammed the door shut, though that only cut down on the wafting cloud of scents from the bedroom. Rather aromatic scents of him and her all mixed together. Scents that reminded him of his dream and Nadine holding him and purring…

"Okay, change of plans." Nadine squeaked, "Shower  _first_ , then clothes and the precinct."

"Um… ya… that might be a good idea…" Ralph said blushing slightly and taking a quick sniff of himself, only for his eyes going a bit wide again. He'd noticed in the kitchen that their scents had been rather… strong… he just hadn't picked up on  _how_  strong and mixed they were, let alone all the little traces as to their mood until it had just been slammed in his face. Though to be fair, he might have been a bit preoccupied, what with staring at Nadine and being _naked_  and everything.

 _Okay, think this through Ralph, You and Nadine had just a wee bit too much to drink last night, and she groomed you, which-is-totally-normal-for-cats,-right? Right. And after that um… playful kiss yesterday… maybe your feelings were running a bit high and you um… groomed her back a bit… that could explain the happy kitty smell, right? …_ _**Right** _ _?_

Ralph gulped as he tried to convince himself of that.

"If… if we walk into the precinct smelling like this…" Ralph said hesitantly, "Every mammal there is going to think we spent the night… um…" Ralph glanced at Nadine, the still very much  _naked_  Nadine, and blushed hard, "you know…"

"But we didn't!" Nadine squeaked, still staring at the door like it had betrayed her, "Um…  _did_  we?" she asked quietly, almost plaintively and glanced at him. Her eyes dropped down and Ralph followed them to his tail he was still holding in front of himself as if trying to protect his modesty… and to the blue ribbon tied to it.

"ah…" Ralph said his ears going back as he looked anywhere but at Nadine's face while a mortified look of embarrassment colored in her white stipes, "I-I… don't know… but um… we might ah,  _really_ want to shower before we, um… try dealing with this…" Ralph said and raised his cuffed paw.

"Shower. Yes.  _Definitely_  shower." Nadine said nodding her head vigorously before pushing him back down the hallway and ducking into her small bathroom, "We need to be quick or were not going to make it to the precinct in time."

"Okay, um, I should probably go first since my fur is going to take longer to towel off," Ralph said, still not able to look at Nadine as he stepped into the small shower.

"No time for that," Nadine said and stepped in behind him causing him to let out a startled yip.

" _Nadine_! I, but,  _do you think this is a good idea_?" he asked feeling his face heat up even more while she press against him as she turned, reaching around to close the shower door.

"Look, I now this is a small shower Ralph!" Nadine said, her voice still higher than normal though steadier than his, "Comes with the cheaper rent for a mid-sized mammal apartment instead of large. But we  ** _don't_**  have time for two showers, plus where still  _cuffed!_  Here, turn around." She said with a grunt, turning him about so that they faced each other and his cuffed arm wasn't crossed awkwardly behind him.

Her back was up against the tiled wall and he was nearly pressed into the shower knobs with only his ribbon clad tail still clutched before him separating the two of them.

"I can't  _believe_  I did that." Nadine mumbled under her breath, looking at the ribbon, before sighing and saying, "Here I'll take that off." And before Ralph could do anything but let out another alarmed yip, she'd grabbed his tail and started untying the ribbon.

"It's just a ribbon Ralph," Nadine said, rolling her eyes though he could still hear the embarrassment in her voice even as she tried to force a grin and add humorously, "and I think it looks good on you."

 _Oh, gods. That sooo isn't helping!_ Ralph thought as he blushed even while he tried to grin back at her joke.  _That was a joke, right? She was joking about that, RIGHT?_

Ralph was having a hard time trying to hold his grin, and the awkward gulf of embarrassment in the tiny shower seemed to only grow. Hell, he could  _smell_  the embarrassment they where so close. Her scent  _filled_  the small space mixing with his and this close to her, in such a confined space, despite his best efforts not to, he couldn't help but pick up on her scent clues.

_Embarrassment, lots and lots of embarrassment plus some panic and a bit of worry, gods my scent is still all over her! And we still smell like tequila ice-cream and sex and… is… is Nadine getting aroused right now?!_

Ralph felt like his mind had just blown out a tire while doing sixty miles an hour and he inadvertently sucked in a large breath that seemed to sear his senses with  _NADINE_  and just to make things worse, now his scent filled with awkward arousal and sexual tension was flooding the shower too.

 _Please, please, please don't let Nadine notice. Just stay calm and stop thinking about how good she smells… and looks… and…_ _**Focus** _ _! Calm, stay Calm and breath! NOT TO DEEP! Shallow breaths! Don't react, my nose is better than hers, she might not notice…_

"There," Nadine said triumphantly as the ribbon came free from his tail and she let go of it, his tail dropping back down, "Now lets get- ohhh…" Nadine's voice tailed off in a an embarrassedly surprised way as her paw came up to cover her mouth.

Ralph blinked, dragging his mind away from the smells that seemed to smoother the air in the confined space even as they intensified, and followed her wide eyed captivated gaze down to where his tail had been covering his front, only for his heart to freeze.

 _She's probably gonna notice_ _ **that**_ _…_ part of his mind added helpfully.

"I, ah, ah…" Ralph stammered, "um, ah… don't read too much into that!" he tried to shift and cover himself only to realize he was dragging her paw toward him with the cuff and aborted the effort, turning desperately in the small shower, accidently bumping his shoulder into her as he scrambled to get out of her view. Nadine meanwhile, just stared, a blush spreading up and down from her cheeks as the overpowering level of her scent in the shower seemed to spike.

Ralph looked around in a panic, his body reacting on its own to her scent, trying to figure out… something,  _a_ _nything_ …

Nadine's free paw over her mouth had lowered somewhat and as he turned his head back to try explain (what exactly, he had no idea…) but his nose bumped into Nadine's uncovered one.

_Boop_

Ralph froze as her eyes went  _wide_.

"I… ah, boop!" He said desperately, trying to playing it off and then for good measure tried apologizing as well, "um… didn't mean too? Sorry? I- um…" Ralph's mind was having trouble thinking past the the fog of scents and smells in the shower; His mind felt fuzzy and light headed like he'd spent too long in a too hot sauna.

 _Tiger. Female. Nadine. Heat. Pretty._  There was some primal part of him that wanted him to stop thinking and simply claim the female in front of him. And that primal base part of him was using the overpowering scents as a club to beat on his rapidly failing thoughts,

 _WOLF WANTS. TAKE. MATE. CLAIM._ _**MINE!** _

Ralph shifted again in the small space, trying to break his view of Nadine, trying to do anything to regain his senses, but he couldn't escape her enthralling scent or the sounds of Nadine's next slightly ragged intake of breath or the way she was staring at him her eyes wide and distant and focused on  _him_  and his body seemed to be reacting completely without of his control.

Ralph's uncuffed paw banged against the shower knob, and in a moment of clear and desperate thought brought on by the pain, he grabbed it and twisted.

* * *

Megan was almost asleep when an ear piercing shriek ripped through the wall.

" ** _EEIYYYYYYY_**!  _Ralph!_   **HOT**  WATER! Turn it to  **HOT!**  GAHHHHH!

"OWW! Nadine!  _Watch_   _the_   _claws_!  _Watch_   _the_   ** _claws_**!  _POINTY BITS!_ "

" ** _COLD_** _!_  Move over so I can get to the-  _EEP_! Move  _your_  Pointy Bit!

"THAT"S NOT THE SHOWER KNOB!"

"I  _Noticed_! Can you PLEASE turn the water to hot?!  _IT_ doesn't like this  _arctic_  water  _either_!"

"Stop Shoving, I'm trying- Nadine the cuff, I can't move with you pulling on the cuff like that!"

"RALPH,  _I'm_ _ **Freeeeezing!**_ **"**

"How are  _you_  freezing?! You're using me as a shield!

"And your doing a  _poor_  job of it! AGHHHH!  _MOVE_!

Megan buried her head under her pillow as the sounds of Nadine and her wolf banging around in her shower echoed through the wall.

"Stupid cat," Megan grumbled, "Doesn't everyone know you let the water get hot  _before_ you get in for shower sex." She grumbled a bit more as the banging continued for a minute before there was a loud relieved sigh and was just about to drift off to sleep again when her eyes snapped open.

"Wait, her shower is the same size as mine. How did both of them fit into it?"

* * *

"We are  _never_  doing that again." Nadine said with a shiver and ducked her head under the hot water streaming from the shower nozzle just a little too low for her to stand under.

"Which part of 'that' do you mean? The water? The showering together? Or the grabby paws?" Ralph asked with a grunt and tapped Nadine as she leaned her weight on him in her effort to get further under the hot water, "Hey, Nadine, a little room? You're suffocating me."

"What?!" Nadine's body went ridged against him, "Oh! No! Sorry! I didn't mean to grab- I was just trying to-" she started sputtering and Ralph let out another muffled grunt into her fur and tapped again. Despite being crammed into the small shower with a tiger practically crawling over him to get under the low shower nozzle, he wasn't necessarily uncomfortable; a little cramped in the tight space with his muzzle crammed under her chin but that wasn't the problem. The fridge water had shocked his body out of his embarrassingly aroused state but the feeling of Nadine's fur, soaked through and sopping wet against his own drench coat was threatening to cause it to reconsider, especially now that shower was filling with steam.

"I- oh!  _Sorry_!" Nadine's back bumped into the shower's wall as she quickly let go of him and tried backing up.

Ralph ran a paw up his face brushing his longer wet fur away from his eyes and couldn't help but snicker lightly at the sight of Nadine, looking like a drowned cat with her dripping whiskers and drenched fur even as her face flushed with a mixture of embarrassment and apology.

The contrast to Nadine's usually in control and confident expression was so drastic he let out a short amused laugh that thankfully seemed to wash away the remnants of the lingering awkward embarrassment between them.

Even amid all the chaos of this morning, it gave him the sense that he and her were, despite everything, going to make it through this alright. And with that reassurance he couldn't resist the chance to tweak her whiskers just a bit. Or her nose more precisely.

Smirking, Ralph reached out.

"Bo-"

"Oh no you don't!" Nadine practically screeched, her eyes going wide and her blush flaring as she cut him off. Her paw snatched his wrist, stopping him just a bare inch from her nose and their next few moments where filled with a back and forth struggling.

Ralph, to a sudden realization of dismay, found himself at a sever disadvantage in the small space as they banged around off the shower walls. And in no more than a few more moments he found himself pinned under Nadine and the still streaming shower nozzle.

"Try to boop me in  _my_  house?!" Nadine growled, her voice filled with affronted indignation.

"It was worth a try," Ralph said, still grinning, "And I already got you once after all."

Soaked or not, Nadine's fur seemed to almost puff like a ruffled hen.

"I- You! Boop  _me_  will you?! Well, we'll just see who's going to get  ** _Booped_**!" Nadine's growling, wide eyed face snarling into his was replaced by her large paw.

"Boop! HA! Take that Ralph! Boop! Boop!"

"Hey!" Ralph protested trying to move his muzzle away from her paw as it tapped his nose again, "Only one Boop at a time, that's the rules!"

"Boop! No, only one boop at a time  _counts,_  I can still boop you all I want,  _especially_  in  _my_  house," Nadine leered down at him from her spot sitting on his chest as the water ran over them in the cramped shower with a triumphant smile, " _Boop_."

"Nadine!" Ralph tried to plead and wiggle out from under her but there was no room and Nadine was to heavy. There was a moment where he almost got his arm free, but Nadine shifted, her knee trapping it and her paw tapped his nose again she half snickered, half giggled.

"Oh no you don't!  _Boop_! This is what you get for trying to Boop me in the shower!  _Boop_!"

Ralph shifted desperately as her paw tapped his nose again, and he could feel his face heating from more than just the hot water as he tried to squirm out from under his very naked and rather pretty best friend as she gleefully booped his nose again and again.

There was a banging on the wall of the shower and a tired muffled sounding shout from the other side.

"I now you're enjoying yourself, Nadine, and normally I'd be cheering you on but I  _really_  need some sleep," Nadine's friend called over making a grumbling sound before adding sleepily, "…and didn't you say you were late to something?"

Ralph looked up as Nadine stared down at him, her uncuffed paw still on his nose. Her gleefuly expression draining from her face as it got a bit pale.

Nadine swore, hurriedly getting off him and helping him to his feet.

"Damnit, Damnit, Damnit! How did we forget that?! Ralph, I'll finish booping you later, we  _seriously_  need to  _hurry_." Nadine scrambled around grabbing a bottle they'd knocked over and squeezed out a generous potion of fur shampoo. She quickly rubbed it into his fur, startling to lather him up before shifting to herself.

Following Nadine's lead, he started scrubbing but immediately ran into a problem as he could only really use one paw, the other still being cuffed to Nadine as she used both.

"This isn't going to work…." Ralph said dubiously after a minute of only partially successful washing and Nadine huffed irritatedly.

"Okay, okay. Your right." Nadine said with an annoyed sigh, seeming to have come to the same conclusion. She turned so that they where facing each other again and paused, blushing slightly, before reaching for more shampoo, "How about I wash you first, then you wash me? That might be faster."

Ralph swallowed, staring at Nadine's soapy striped fur and focused hard, stomping on his tail's reaction to wag at the suggestion. Not trusting himself to speak right at that instant, he just nodded.

...

The next minute or so was a hellish torment for Ralph as Nadine's paws worked and rubbed, moving over his shoulders and down his chest and over his stomach. He tried not to stare at Nadine, tried not to stare at her paws as they moved through his fur, tried not to let his tail wag or any other part of him react and give away how much he was enjoying the feel of her paws against him. Swallowed hard and desperate for something to do, something to distract himself, he snatched the shampoo bottle with his one free paw. Focusing all his thoughts on simply trying to wash as quickly as they could, he squeezed out some of the shampoo on Nadine's shoulders and started working it through her fur.

_Focus. Focus! Wash fur and dry so we can get to the precinct! Wow, her fur feels nice even when its soaked… Oh and don't forget the clothes! We definitely need clothes! Though her fur is really pretty…_

Ralph watched almost mesmerized as his paw moved through her thick fur, watching the orange and black and white hairs part around his fingers, feeling the softer layer just beneath.

"Hey, I thought you hated cold weather?" Ralph asked as a curious thought bubbled up through his distracted mind, "Your coat has two layers to it too…" He ran his paw through her luscious fur again watching in fascination at the contrast between their colors through the steam filled shower.

Nadine chuffed, then rolled her eyes.

"Just because I  _could_  live in colder climates doesn't mean I  _enjoy_  colder climates. Anyways Siberian tigers have longer coats like yours," She pointedly ran her paw through his chest ruff where his longer slopping wet fur covered her paw and flicked the fur up at him. Ralph's breath caught for a moment at the contact and he hoped like hell she couldn't feel his increased heart rate.

 _Focus! Focus!_ _**Focus** _ _!_

Ralph stopped his curious examination of her fur and went back to scrubbing as he scrambled to think up something to say.

"Even still, your fur is pretty thick and much nicer than any wolf's, I can't see how cold weather is a problem for you."

Nadine blushed and it took Ralph a second to think back over what he'd said and mentally slap himself.

"I, ah, well I just didn't grow up in a very cold area," Nadine mumbled, not quite looking at him, "I'm not used to cold weather and I don't really care to acclimatize." That last bit came out a bit rumbly and growlish, shifting into more of a deep purr.

Ralph stopped and blinked as the rumbling purring sound suddenly cut off with a wide eyed meep from Nadine.

"Um…" Ralph started to say, then realized where his free paw scrubbing Nadine's front had drifted down to from her shoulders, "Oh!" he yanked his paw back so fast he banged his elbow against the wall.

Not able to put any real space between them in the confines of the shower, Ralph looked down mumbling an apology, and then also realized just how low Nadine's paws had moved as they'd scrubbed down his front almost to his hips.

Ralph had no idea what the sound  _he_  made right then might have been called. It wasn't a meep and it wasn't quite a yip though it was close, just far  _far_  more flustered.

"I- um, I ah," Nadine started to say sounding just about as awkwardly embarrassed as he felt before swallowing audibly and hurrying on in one fast sentence, "w-why don't you turn around and I'll get your back and you can finish up down…" there was a sudden embarrassed pause like a bump in the road, "… down there and then we can swap and you can get my back while I… finish washing my front."

"I-ahh-" Ralph said a bit too flustered to put sounds together into words, as even through the water pouring from the faucet and the steam filling the shower he caught Nadine's scent again. Something to his south started stirring on its own accord and Ralph spun quickly, his voice going high.

"That's a great idea!" he squeaked and started furiously scrubbing. Which was a mistake.

Ralph wanted to groan and whack his head against the wall, but refrained as he would have smacked his head right into the low shower nozzle. Instead he reached up and grabbed the nozzle, angling it against his front to rinse off some of the suds and made sure none of the water was spraying past him to were Nadine was tentatively starting to scrub at his back before cracking the shower knob back over as far as it would go to the cold end.

He shivered slightly as the water turned icy, though the feeling of Nadine's paws running against his shoulder blades might have had something to do with it too.

The fridge water started soaking his fur and Ralph let out a sigh of relief. He was not a fan of cold weather either though he didn't find it as horrifying as Nadine, but right then he'd never been quite so relieved to feel the icy touch of cold water seeping through his coat.

He let the cold stream continue for a long half minute before turning it back to hot and concentrating back on what they where supposed to be doing.

Neither he nor Nadine spoke for most of the rest of the shower as they quickly scrubbed. Though there was one moment where Ralph barely managed to cut off a surprised yelp when Nadine started on his tail. He had to work hard to control his breathing and not groan in pleasure as he forced his tail to stay still and limp while Nadine's paws worked through his fur. To his distracted mind it seemed like her paws were moving at a tortuously slow pace as they stoked down his tail, and he was sure he only imagined Nadine mumble about how much thinker and fluffier than a tiger's it was.

Then another awkward moment of shuffling as they reoriented themselves in the small shower so he could wash her back and Nadine could get under the shower nozzle. It took them three tries before they succeeded since the first time they got tangled up from the cuffs, then bumping and mumbling apologies untangled and tried again while both looked anywhere but at the other.

Their awkward game of blind mammals merry-go-round and keep away complete, the shower proceeded faster. Well, until Ralph got to Nadine's tail.

...

With Nadine looking forward and away from him as he scrubbing her back and the constant stream of water and mist keeping their scents mostly suppressed, Ralph finally started to relax from his state of near terminal flustered embarrassment.

And without that embarrassment hanging over him, Ralph was actually starting to enjoy himself. (Enjoying himself far  _too_  much if he was honest, as he worked his paws through Nadine's fur and over her toned muscles underneath it.) But he wasn't being honest with himself. He'd managed to get his mind into an almost meditative trance focused solely on accomplishing his immediate goal and all the stray extraneous thoughts about how wonderful her fur felt, and how spectacular the view of Nadine's back was, and the patterning of her fur lower down that he'd never seen before and totally wasn't memorizing, or for that matter, how shapely her rear was, because he was absolutely not ogling her butt… no, his eye's were not stuck on her butt. How could they be when he was looking at her back and legs and tail too?

All those thoughts along with the faint whiffs of her scent he was occasionally catching amid the steam from the shower were still there bouncing around his mind, but Ralph was able to keep them to the periphery of his focus as he worked.

_Scrub. Rinse. Scrub down to the next strip. Ohh… this ones pretty with the way it splits in the middle with that smaller stripe. Scrub. It almost looks like two back to back hearts on their sides. Scrub. *snicker* Nadine's got the cutest little tramp stamp stripe right above her tail. Rinse. Scrub down to…_

Ralph moved down, a faint sense of pride in his focus and no little relief that his concentration on the task at hand was preventing any more embarrassing reactions from his body.

Ralph's paw had moved down her back and had just started scrubbing from the base of her tail and down along its length when Nadine seemed to suddenly convulse before letting out the loudest most un-Nadine like girlish squealing he had ever heard and her tail twitched violently almost escaping his paw as it started snapping back and forth.

" *Squeal!*  _Ralph_! Ah! That  _TICKLES_!" Nadine barely managed to gasp before squealing again and trying to twist/jump away from him. In the confines of the small shower, it didn't work to well and she only managed to bump her head against the ceiling before collapsing on the stunned wolf in a wriggling squirming mass.

"Let go! *Squeal* *gasp* *Laugh* RALPH! *gasp* Stop tickling me or I swear I'll- *Squeal* "

There was another banging on the wall and Nadine's neighbor shouted over in a sleepy voice, "What kind of shower sex are you having Nadine? Because I'm pretty sure its not supposed to  _tickle;_  I think you're doing something wrong…"

"MEGAN! * _SQUEAL_!* Nadine convulsed again twisting, and pulling Ralph along by the cuff into a twisted tangled ball in the cramped shower before her frantically writhing tail finally snapped its way free of his paw. She gave one more gasping laugh and then collapsed, going limp.

It took Ralph a few moments before he managed to break out of his shock and say anything.

"Wow…" he looked over, seeing Nadine's two roundish ears with the white splotches on their backs poked out from under his armpit where her head had somehow gotten jammed, "I didn't know you where ticklish."

Nadine gasped in a few more lungful's of air before growling back at him, "I'm  ** _not_**! And if you tell  ** _anyone_** , and I mean ** _ANYONE_** , I will cuff you to the shower head and no one will ever see or hear from you again!"

There was another sleepy shout from the other side of the wall.

"I'm pretty sure  _I_  will every time you come back to take a shower… oh and Nadine? You also might want to go back over the basics before you try anything kinky like tying up your wolf in their…" there was a muffled sounding snicker and a barely audible, "because with a wolf and all, you might be the one getting 'tied up' in the shower…"

" _MEGAN_!" Nadine roared into Ralph's armpit, her ears and their cute white spots snapping back flat against her skull as she squirmed around and finally managed to extract her head from under his arm. Head free, it whipped around to apparently try melting two holes through the wall with her glare as Nadine growled, "I am  **NOT**  tying up Ralph in my shower! There  _is_  no and will be  _no_ ,  ** _tying_**  of any kind it the shower! Period! Stop imagining things!"

There was no response though and Nadine seemed to simmer as she let out a low menacing growl, either irritated at the lack of a response or the walls unwillingness to instantly vaporize in front of her glare.

"I- um…" Ralph said trying not to blush before he blurted out in a confused tone, "didn't you just threaten to cuff me up in here?"

Nadine's head snapped back around and he felt like he might vaporize under that glare.

"I don't have to cuff you up in the bathroom to silence you Ralph!" she growled.

"Ya  _wolf!_  She can cuff you to her bed instead…" Came one more sleepy call through the wall and Nadine's growl turned into a groan as her head slumped and thumped into his chest.

Apparently not satisfied, Nadine thumped his chest a few more times with her head before muttering, "This is all your fault Ralph. I told you yesterday.  _I_   _told_   _you_. We're never going to hear the end of this from her. This is all your fault because you tried blackmailing me for that boop. We wouldn't be in this situation if it wasn't for that!"

Ralph mauled that over as the shower continued to rain down on them.

"I'm pretty sure the tequila might be partially to blame too…"

Nadine groaned and thumped his chest with her head again.

Finally, she let out a defeated sigh and then arduously started untangling herself and getting up.

"Come on Ralph, we can figure out how to deal with Megan latter. Let's finish rinsing off, it's got to be… be... what time  _is_  it?" Nadine stopped and asked before turning and banging her fist on the wall.

"MEGAN! What Time Is It?"

The was muffled groans, but Nadine grinned evilly and kept banging.

"Serves her right…" Nadine muttered before there was an annoyed shout back.

"Stop banging on the wall Nadine! You've got your wolf there with you, go bang him instead!"

Nadine whiskers twinged in a way Ralph recognized as a precursor to Nadine reaching her breaking point and she banged on the wall harder, "Take a look at your alarm clock and tell me the time or I'll just take your advice,  _right here up against the wall_! Think you can get to sleep with  _that_?!" She shouted back angrily.

"Wait.  _What?!_ " Ralph yipped, and stared at Nadine wide eyed as she glared back at the wall, this time with an annoyed and stubbornly determined set to her jaw, one he also knew all too well.

"Um, Nadine, You're just bluffing  _right_?" Ralph started to stammer, though Nadine's attention still seemed firmly drawn to the wall as she banged on it a few more times, "I mean not that I wouldn't want to or um, I mean we just showered and ah- there's the whole pack courtship rules! I haven't even taken you to dinner or-"

"Gahh! Fine Nadine!" came a peeved feline shout, "Its almost eleven forty now will you  _please_  stop?! I promise I won't make any more comments about you and your wolf until I wake up if you do."

"Eleven forty?!" Nadine shouted in alarm, scrambling haphazardly to her feet before hauling Ralph to his. "Come on Ralph, we are out of time!" She said and quickly manhandled him under the showers spray to rinse off the remaining soap.

"Nadine I-" he was cut off as he caught a mouth full of water, "Nadine-mffft!" Ralph was cut off again as Nadine practically pinning him to the wall as she ducked down a bit to get her head under the nozzle too and hurriedly rinsed. Ralph tried again to say something but was distracted by the feeling of Nadine practically flush against him as the water poured down, and then before he knew what was happening the water was off and he was being pulled out of the shower.

"wha-" a towel dropped over his head and Nadine started frantically drying his ears and head and muzzle.

"It takes nearly ten minutes to get to the precinct, but if we get lucky with the lights we can shave a few minutes off of that and the traffic should be light. We're going to have to run in but we just might make it." Nadine was talking at a mile a minute.

Ralph reached up and took the towel with his free hand, pulling it down only for Nadine to grab the now soaked towel and hand him a dry one before grabbing one for herself.

"Geeze, your fur holds water like a sponge! Hurry up and we've got to  _move_."

Ralph opened his mouth to say something as Nadine' started hurriedly drying herself, then not sure what to say, closed his open mouth.

 _She had to be joking with her friend,_ He thought to himself staring at Nadine,  _I mean that was just girl talk… right? Or maybe that's just more normal for felines to joke about? I mean it's not like she'd have actually wanted too…_  his mind flashed back to waking up this morning in bed with Nadine, to all the scents lingering around them and the room.

Ralph brought the towel up to finish drying his face and hide the heat that was suffusing it. He wasn't sure if he was more disappointed or relieved that he couldn't remember exactly what had happened. Sure wolves, especially young wolves fooled around here and there but their where limits to what allowances that would buy with the pack. If they'd gone all the way and tied the knot so to speak… but they hadn't, had they? Ralph swallowed before trying to reassure himself.

_I'm pretty sure, tequila or knot, I would have known if that happened, Nadine almost certainly would…_

Ralph peeked past the towel he held with one paw, past his other still cuffed to Nadine as she used both paws to hurriedly dry.

 _Last night was_ _ **such**_   _a mistake…_ Ralph thought worriedly even as he blushed.  _If word gets around before I can figure out how to actually ask Nadine out…_

Ralph bit his lip, thinking hard. He had no idea about how tigers courted, hell he had no idea how felines in general courted for that matter. Well, nothing more than some crude jokes that sometimes got passed around among wolves about 'those cats', but he was quite sure that as a  _very_  bad place to go to for advice.

Ralph's thoughts were cut off as Nadine tossed away the towel she was using, apparently done and grabbed the last dry towel of the wall rack and turned back to him with a huff.

"Seriously, how on earth do you deal with fur like that every day?" she asked as she started working on him again with the towel, sending his fur tufting in all directions.

"You need to get a fur dryer," Ralph mumbled and then with a embarrassed sigh stopped her, "I'm not going to get dry with just that one towel. Here, hold this for a second," he said giving her the towel in his paw before stepping back into the shower and closing the door till the cuff chain stopped it.

"Don't laugh, okay?" Ralph said glancing back through the glass door to Nadine who looked rather confused and then shook his whole body sending water flying everywhere.

After a few good shakes he stopped and stepped out of the shower.

Nadine bit her lip, but despite here apparent effort not to she still let out a muffled giggled. Ralph's cheeks burning as he snatched the towel back and stated drying off his now less water logged and far more fluffed fur.

"Sorry! Sorry!" Nadine said and giggled, "It's just… I mean, Ralph… you- you just  _Floofed!_ " Nadine said and giggled again.

"Ughhh, Nadine please  _never_  say that again, it's completely emasculating." Ralph groaned as he tried to smooth down his fur and finish toweling off so he didn't look like he'd just been tossed around a dryer.

"But Ralph! With your fur fluffed, You... you just look so…" Nadine snickered, "- _Cute_." And he groaned again.

"Nadine, Cuffs, Remember!" Ralph said lifting up his arm and shaking the metal bracelet.

"Oh, right, Right!" Nadine said with one last giggle and then took the last towel and started helping him dry off too.

…

"Well, you might be stuck being damp for a little while," Nadine said to him, looking glumly at the last of her towels, now too wet to do anymore help, before tossing it on the counter with the others. She sighed but then surprised Ralph when she leaned in close and sniffed at his chest.

"um,  _Nadine_?" Ralph asked his voice threatening to crack as it went high again at her sudden move. You just didn't go around sniffing other mammals like that, well not among wolves at least, what with their noses... It was just  _extremely_  personnel.

Nadine ignored him still sniffing close enough to his fur to cause it to flutter. She stopped after another few moments and stood back up with a half frown.

"Well, the shower got most of it. Guess that'll have to do, let's get moving." she said before taking his paw and hurriedly pulling him out of the bathroom like a very determined tiger on a mission.

"Most of  _what_?" Ralph asked stupidly as he was dragged along, his thoughts not quite keeping up with her before she pulled him back into her room and the smell slapped him in the face again, "oh… right.  _That._ " He said and despite his best efforts, blushed.

Then blushed more as Nadine started pulling clothes out of her dresser and putting them on. With everything else that had been happening he'd almost forgotten that they were in nothing but their fur. Her clothes though, put that point into stark contrast and he could feel his embarrassment rising again.

"Um… Nadine?" Ralph asked looking around the room and unconsciously covering himself with his tail again, "Where did my duffle and clothes go?"

Nadine stopped mid hop as she was yanking on a pair of jeans and looked around the room, which was conspicuously devoid of any stray clothing articles, feline or canine, tossed about.

"I ah… think I saw your shirt in the living room…" Nadine said before looking at him, only for her cheeks to redden as her gaze dropped to his conspicuously held tail. She looked away and grabbed a shirt from a drawer before half running, half hopping out the door, as she finished tugging on the pants, "Lets check to see if you left your duffel there too."

* * *

 _Okay, we can do this, we can do this. Just have to get out the door in the next couple of minutes…_  Nadine kept repeating to herself as she finished buttoning her jeans while beelining for the living room,  _Don't think about anything else or we're not getting these cuffs off today, and I'm going to end up sleeping with Ralph again. Okay bad choice of words. End up in bed with him. No that's just as bad, spending the night tied together… Gahh! I'm going to kill Megan for putting those ideas in my head! Come on Girl, keep you mind on the goal!_  She glanced back at Ralph behind her then hurriedly looked forward again. _Wolf. Cuffed to Wolf. Need to get to the precinct to get_ _ **un**_ _cuffed from wolf… and do it without alerting everyone that I spent the night… snuggling, yes lets go with snuggling. Snuggling is safe. Nothing wrong with snuggling with my best friend… whose also a handsome I-should-get-some-clothes-on-him-damned-soon_ _ **Wolf**_ _. Oh gods... I might need to call up Judy and talk to her about this whole developing feelings for someone outside your genus..._ Nadine shook her head to clear it,  _Okay, I can do that later. First, get to the precinct, and do it without alerting everyone that I spent the night 'snuggling' with Ralph! Already showered off the evidence of any extra-snuggling activities (most of it anyway), put on fresh non-Ralph smelling clothes, check. Now just need fresh non-tiger smelling clothes for Ralph… oh gods,_ _ **what**_ _did we do to my living room?!_

Nadine stopped and lost a few precious seconds gapping at the full disaster scene before her.

"Wow, and I thought we did a number at my house," Ralph said sounding almost impressed at what looked like and explosion of furniture, food and drink containers and random articles of clothing, "Oh hey, my boxers!" Ralph said suddenly and rushed past Nadine, pulling her behind him now, which she refused to admit to herself was more than slightly distracting as he had his tail wrapped protectively around his front, leaving his back side wide open for viewing. A very nice backside, part of her noted, especially with how his still damp fur, now smoothed down, outlined every muscle as it moved.

Ralph pulled his boxers out from under some couch pillows only to stare at rips through it. Very suspicious larger than wolf claw-like-rips Nadine noted with a rising panic.

She snatched the boxers out of Ralph's paw as if hoping that he'd forget about them now that he couldn't see them.

"I aah, don't think you want to wear those, ah.. oh hey! There's your duffle!" Nadine nearly shouted with relived enthusiasm and ducking under the ceiling fan with a shirt hanging off of it, headed over to the bag stuffed under the coffee table. A table she noted that was haphazardly shoved into a corner of the room where one of her floor lamps was supposed to be. The lamp in question was now in the middle of the room as if they'd been using it as a mic stand and she momentarily wondered what had happened to the lamp shade.

She extracted the bag and handed it to Ralph. "Get dressed, I'll deal with…" she looked at the ripped up boxers in her paw and then quickly hid them behind her back. "Umm… I'll ah… replace those?" she said trying to smile apologetically.

Ralph, wearing a confused embarrassed expression, one ear cocked to the side, raised a paw as if to speak then stopped and lowered it before finally just nodding. Nadine sighed as he pulled out his clothes she'd stuffed in the duffel last night, and once she was sure he wasn't watching, discretely tossed his ruined boxers over onto the couch were he wouldn't see them.

 _Out of sight, out of mind,_ _at least until I can get him out of my apartment and clean up._

She turned back just in time to see Ralph struggling to pull on his clean boxers with only his uncuffed paw, and to her mortification was once again struck with the urge to giggle uncontrollably like some schoolgirl at the sight.

But despite her efforts not to, she must have made some sound though because Ralph paused momentarily to look at her and the insides of his ears started darkening with a heavy blush.

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with hearts on boxers!" He said defensively, the blush now appearing on his cheeks too.

Nadine tried, tried  _really_  hard not to, but another half manic giggle slipped through.

"I didn't say there was anything wrong with them!" she squeaked, only to giggle in that oh so embarrassing way again, and quickly slapped her free paw over her muzzle.

 _Okay and now would be a good time to drop dead, like right now, before I permanently ruin my reputation with Ralph by-_ another giggle slipped out.

_And… too late._

On the only good side, if there was a good side, from this current disaster ontop of all the rest from this morning; Her mortifyingly embarrassing girlish giggle had Ralph pulling his clothes on at lightning speed.

In fact he was pulling his clothes on so fast he tried to nearly jump into his shirt, only to get himself stuck when he couldn't get his cuffed paw through the shirt sleeve. Ralph flailed for a few seconds and only managed to get himself more tangled up in his shirt half pulled over his head.

This, unfortunately, didn't help with Nadine's problem as  _another_  giggle… or three… escaped.

She  _hated_  the way she sounded when she giggled but the more she tried to stop the harder it was. And Ralph wasn't helping what with the ridiculous way his ear's where poking out of the shirt in an alarmed posture and turning redder with each giggle.

"It's not funny!" Ralph yelped in a truly embarrassed voice still struggling with the shirt then lost his balance and fell.

Nadine managed to catch him before he brought her down by with the cuff aswell, and helped steady her temporarily blinded partner.

"Um… could I get some help?" Ralph asked in the most plaintive voice she'd ever heard from him as the inside of his ears burned a bright red.

"Hold- Hold still for a second," Nadine replied, this time with only a trace of the embarrassing giggle, before looking at the shirt caught over his head and cuffed arm. She gave it a tug on one spot and then another, and Ralph's head popped out like a jack in the box.

The absurdity of it had Nadine's giggle coming back even despite all her attempts to get them moving out the door.

_Then again if we're already probably going to be late, might as well take this golden opportunity._

Ralph, head free of the shirt, blinked, then blinked again as her finger tapped his nose.

"Boop!" Nadine snicker/giggled.

Ralph just stood there stunned for a second before giving her a look that screamed, ' _Really_?!'

Nadine bit her lip to stop herself from giggling again and glanced away from Ralph's scandalized face to his shirt which was on except where it bunched up over his arm. It was quite apparent that there was going to be no way to get his arm through it with his paw still cuffed to hers.

"well, this is going to be a problem." Ralph said his voice ever so slightly peevish, though whether that was from her booping him again or the shirt, she wasn't sure.

Probably both she decided and then considered the shirt she'd grabbed from her room and the same problem she was going to have putting it on. Luckily, or unluckily for her depending on how she thought of it, the loose comfortable blouse she'd grabbed was a halter top.

Nadine sighed. She'd liked this shirt, but they  _really_  didn't have time for her to be picky about what she was going to wear, and trying not to think about it she used her claws to cut the neck strap. Not able to pull the garment over her head she stepped into it and pulled it up before quickly tying the cut strap back together behind her neck.

"Wow, that was a neat trick." Ralph commented, seeming slightly stunned as he raised both eyebrows, "You, ah… like, haven't ever had to do this before have you?" he finished waving his cuffed paw under his bunched up shirt

"What?!" Nadine said a bit startled and then blushed as she took his meaning, "No! you dunderhead! You're the first mammal I've ever had to get dressed while cuffed to!"

This time Ralph snickered and her blush deepened, so she did something she'd see a few other she-wolves in Ralph's pack do when they got miffed and reached out and flicked his ear.

Ralph's snickering cut off with a startled yip before he gapped at her with a look of uncomprehending disbelief.

Something about the sheer goofiness of his expression, what with one cuffed arm still sticking out from under his shirt, had a satisfied happy little smile forming on her face. She chuffed, trying to control the reaction and looked back at his shirt in hopes of hiding how the corners of her mouth kept quirking upward.

She examined it for a second before saying, "I really hope this shirt isn't one of your favorites too."

"Why?" Ralph asked, still sounding utterly bewildered that she'd ear flicked him.

Nadine reached out and took his shirt, extending a claw, "Well, because I don't think you'll be wearing it again after today." And in one quick careful motion she cut the shirt down the side, from the sleeve all the way to the hem. The bunched up fabric over his arm fell down, and Nadine took a moment to examine her handiwork as Ralph squawked.

"That was a limited-edition T shirt from the movie premier, Nadine! How am I supposed to replace that?!"

Nadine nodded, satisfied. The shirt now looked like a cross between a t-shirt and a poncho with the side cut open and flapping but it would do for now. She couldn't drag Ralph into the precinct shirt less and cuffed. Not that she didn't mind him shirtless. No. Not at all really... In fact she rather liked being able to look at Ralph's chest and fluffy ruff… It would just be hard to explain to Bogo why he was in the precinct shirtless, what with him still cuffed…

_The cuffs_

They were running out of time to deal with the cuffs. Probably  _had_  run out of time already.

"-What, are you going to come with me to the next premier and get me a new shirt?! Because you can't simply buy-"

"Fine," Nadine cut him off, only having half listened as her thoughts refocused on their primary goal of the morning, "I'll get you a replacement, now come on we need to  _go_." She said looking around the room frantically before thankfully spotting her keys and phone tossed over by the tv remote and his on the floor.

"Really?" Ralph asked seeming stunned again as she grabbed the items and then pulled Ralph toward the apartment door.

"Yes, Yes, I'll get you another shirt Ralph. Promise." she said distractedly, unlodging the chair from under the apartments door handle and muttered, blushing slightly, " _I need to get you some replacement boxers anyway…"_  as she pulled him out of the apartment and slammed the door closed behind them.

Hurrying toward the stairs as she checked the time on her phone.

11:49

Nadine cursed and started moving faster.

* * *

Clawhauser looked at the clock and sighed in disappointment. He was sure that they were going to make it in. What could have happened? Not even Fangmeyer should have been able to break those cuffs. Heck, Bogo hadn't been able to when they were testing the new equipment and if he couldn't, no one could.

"Well, I guess I'll find out tomorrow morning." He said a bit disappointedly and reached for another donut.

"Okay Clawhauser," Nick piped up from where he was sitting on top of a stack of files on the chair next to him. The fox turned from his halfheartedly help sifting through some of the departments never ending paperwork and looked directly at the cheetah, "I appreciate you saving us from punishment parking duty and all by convincing the chief you needed some help with all of this," he waved his paw at the pile of old record files that they'd been reviewing, and then muttered quickly, " _Though I'm not sure if this is all that much better…_ "

"And whose fault is it, that we got on the Chief's bad side,  _Nick_?" Judy asked from inside one of the Bogo sized record boxes where she was organizing the mess of old files with her usually efficiency, " _Hummm_?"

"Still worth it," Nick mumbled and coughed in an attempt to covering up his words as Judy snorted.

" _Anyway_ ," Nick said grinning as he turned back to Clawhauser, "What's  _really_  going on?"

"Why what do you mean? I just needed some help, that's all!" Clawhauser said holding his donut in both paws and trying to look as innocent as possible.

"Right… sorting through these files has been on the backburner for months because it wasn't important for any current cases, but suddenly it just  _has_  to be done, and you  _just_ have to have help with it, and aren't Judy and Nick stuck on punishment detail today anyway?" Nick gave him a too perceptive look and Clawhauser even saw Judy's ears pop up out of the top of the carboard box and swivel to listen in, "You, my big friend," Nick patted his arm jovially and snagged one of his donuts, munching on it as he continued, " _always_  knows what's going on before anyone else. There's a reason you run the precincts betting pool and always have the best gossip. Soooo… what's the scoop this time? And why did you want us here?"

Clawhauser blushed slightly and stuffed the donut in his mouth to cover it up.

"I've got.  _no_  idea. what your. talking about." He said between munches and determinedly did not look at Nick, "I'm certainly not digging for gossip. Or planning on stating another betting pool. And I  _certainly_  wouldn't have arranged for someone with a good nose to be here with me this morning! I just needed a little help sorting all this!" Clawhauser protested with hurt dignity as he waved at the files.

"uh-huh. Is that as your job as the front desk mammal or as the precincts head gossip?" Nick asked clearly not convinced.

Clawhasuer was saved from answering as the front doors were thrown open and Wolford and Fangmeyer came sprinting in, fur looking a bit ruffled and damp like they'd recently come through a rainstorm.

"Better hurry," Clawhauser said as Nadine skidded to a stop in front of his desk, Ralph skidding and bumping into her back. He pointed over his shoulder down one of the hallways.

"Jacobs said he's not waiting a minute past noon, so you've got like thirty seconds to get there before he locks up."

"Right, come on Ralph!" Fangmeyer said turning and sprinting down the corridor, Wolford barely managing to keep up with her, his half ruined shirt flapping as he ran.

"Wait. I thought they had the day off?" Nick said a bit confused, "Were they on mission in the rainforest district or something- wait are they  _cuffed_?"

"Shhh!" Clawhauser shushed before quickly grabbing Nicks head, turning it in the direction the two officers had just ran and in a more commanding if whispered voice said, "Quickly, what do you smell?"

Nick sniffed a few times and frowned, "not too much, good bit of fur shampoo, Head & Stripes I think… that shampoo brand with the slogan,  _gets your fur licken' clean in no time!_ , and some hints of… tequila I think? Huh. Besides that they mostly smell like they usually do, scents are a bit excited… good bit of adrenaline…" he trailed off closing his eyes and sniffing again, "and… some pheromones?" Nick opened his eyes and looked back over at Clawhauser still seeming confused.

"Were they working some sort of undercover vice case in the rainforest district or something?"

"Now you know I could say even if they were." Clawhauser said grinning broadly as he pulled out a ledger book and started scribbling.

"Wait!" Judy said, pulling herself up to the edge of the box and looking at Nick intently, "They  _both_  smelled of Head & Stripes?"

Nick thought for a second then nodded.

"Didn't smell any other fur shampoos or conditioners, why?"

Judy turned to Clawhauser, who looked ready to squeal with excitement, "Benji, double my bet that Ralph wins The Boop Wager, oh and put me down for twenty that Nadine asks him out before the end of it too."

**Boop Count**

**Ralph: 6**

**Nadine: 5**

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N
> 
> Thanks to Anheledir for the suggestion of 'Head & Stripes' name and slogan for Fangmeyer's Shampoo!
> 
> Credit to MinscLovesBoo for the ear flick *snicker* though if you don't already know about that you'll have to wait a bit for some more posts of this story!
> 
> Now, I got to go and finish some other over due chapters, so I'm gonna start running before any of you finish reading this and start coming after me asking about when the next chapter is gonna be. To which I'll answer here as I continue to run and get a nice lead, that I'm not entirely sure, but as soon as I finish two other major projects which are actually coming to a close quite soon, that there should certainly be more regular updates to this story!


End file.
